1635 Feb 22, King Louis XIII at
the urging of Cardinal Richelieu granted letters patent to formally
establish the Academie Francaise in Paris. The Académie française
was responsible for the regulation of French grammar, orthography,
and literature.
(http://tinyurl.com/4nq46)

1700 Feb 22, Augustus II
(the Strong) with the help of the Saxon army attacked Swedish
controlled Riga. This began the Northern War (1700-1721).
(LHC, 2/22/03)

1727 Feb 22, Francesco
Gasparini (58), composer, died.
(MC, 2/22/02)

1732 Feb 22, George Washington
(1732-1799), first U.S. President (1789-1797), was born in
Westmoreland, Virginia. He is revered as the "Father of His Country"
for the great services he rendered during America's birth and
infancy--a period of nearly 20 years. He spent most of his boyhood
at Ferry Farm, across from the village of Fredericksburg. He later
married Martha Custis, a widow with 2 sons. They had no children
together. Martha Washington is credited with originating the first
US bandanna. He held 317 slaves and once said: “To set the slaves
afloat at once would... be productive of much inconvenience and
mischief?". Washington commanded the Continental Army that won
American independence from Britain in 1783. In 1787, Washington was
elected president of the Constitutional Convention that created the
form of American democratic government that survives to this day.
Washington was also elected in 1787 as the first president of the
United States, serving two terms. One of his officers, "Light-horse
Harry" Lee, summed up how Americans felt about George Washington:
"First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his
countrymen." George Washington died at his Mount Vernon home on
December 14, 1799, at the age of 67.
(A & IP, ESM, p.10)(AHD, p.1446)(SFC, 3/8/96,
p.A21)(Hem., 3/97, p.101) (SFC,12/897, p.A27)(HN, 2/22/98)(HNPD,
2/22/99)

1778 Feb 22, Rembrandt Peale,
American painter who painted excellent portraits of the founding
fathers of the United States, was born.
(HN, 2/22/99)

1784 Feb 22, The US merchant
ship "Empress of China" left New York City on the first American
trade mission to China. Real profit came on the return when the ship
brought back Chinese teas and porcelain.
(AP, 2/22/99)(Econ, 4/1/17, p.59)

1797 Feb 22, The last invasion
of Britain took place when some 1,400 Frenchmen landed at Fishguard,
in Wales.
(HN, 2/22/99)

1819 Feb 22, James Russell
Lowell (d.1891), American essayist, poet, critic, diplomat,
abolitionist, was born: "He who is firmly seated in authority soon
learns to think security, and not progress, the highest lesson of
statecraft."
(AP, 6/29/99)(MC, 2/22/02)
1819 Feb 22, Spain signed the
Adams-Onis Treaty with the United States ceding eastern Florida.
Spanish minister Do Luis de Onis and U.S. Secretary of State John
Quincy Adams signed the Florida Purchase Treaty, in which Spain
agrees to cede the remainder of its old province of Florida. Spain
renounced claims to Oregon Country. [see 1821]
(AP, 2/22/99)(HN, 2/22/99)

1821 Feb 22, The Adams-Onis
Treaty became final, whereby Spain gave up all of Florida to the US.
The boundary between Mexico and the Louisiana Purchase was
established and the US renounced all claims to Texas.
(AH, 2/06, p.15)

1847 Feb 22, In the Battle of
Buena Vista US troops beat Mexican army during the Mexican-American
War. Mexican General Santa Anna (of Alamo infamy) surrounded the
outnumbered forces of U.S. General Zachary Taylor ('Old Rough and
Ready') at the Angostura Pass in Mexico and demanded an immediate
surrender. Taylor refused, reported to reply, "Tell him to go to
hell," and early the next morning Santa Anna dispatched some 15,000
troops to move against the 5,000 Americans. The superior US
artillery was able to halt one of the two advancing Mexican
divisions. By the afternoon Taylor had lived up to his word as the
Mexicans began to withdraw.
(MC, 2/22/02)

1857 Feb 22, Heinrich Hertz,
German physicist, was born in Hamburg. He became the first person to
broadcast and receive radio waves. The radio wave unit of frequency
was named after him.
(HN, 2/22/01)(AP, 2/22/07)
1857 Feb 22, Lord Robert
Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout Movement, was born in London.
(AP, 2/22/07)

1860 Feb 22, Shoe-making
workers of Lynn, Mass, struck successfully for higher wages. The
strike in Lynn and Natick, Massachusetts, spread throughout New
England and involved 20,000 workers. The strike was for higher wages
and included women. The workers won their major demands.
(HNQ, 8/3/98)(MC, 2/22/02)

1861 Feb 22, Edward Weston left
Boston on a bet to walk to Lincoln's inauguration.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1861 Feb 22, Jefferson Davis
was sworn in as the permanent president of the Confederate States of
America on Washington’s birthday. Davis was sworn in as president of
the Confederacy in Richmond, Va., following his inauguration in
Alabama on Feb 18.
(HN, 2/22/98)(AH, 10/04, p.60)

1879 Feb 22, Frank Winfield
Woolworth's 'nothing over five cents' shop opened at Utica, New
York. It was the first chain store.
(AP, 2/22/99)(HN, 2/22/99)

1888 Feb 22, John Reid of
Scotland demonstrated golf to Americans at Yonkers, NY. Reid
converted his lawn to six hole for golf in Yonkers N.Y., the first
golf course in the US.
(SFEC, 7/18/99, Z1 p.8)(MC, 2/22/02)

1889 Feb 22, President
Cleveland signed a bill to admit the Dakotas, Montana and Washington
state to the Union. The "omnibus bill" was an act dividing the
Dakota Territory into the states of North and South Dakota, and
enabling the two Dakotas to formulate constitutions. A
constitutional convention was held at Bismarck beginning July 4,
1889. A constitution was formulated and submitted to a vote of the
people of the State of North Dakota on October 1, 1889, and was
adopted.
(AP,
2/22/99)(www.court.state.nd.us/court/history/dakotaterritory.htm)

1902 Feb 22, A fistfight broke
out in the US Senate. Senator Benjamin Tillman, a white supremacist,
suffered a bloody nose for accusing his fellow South Carolina
Senator John McLaurin of bias on the Philippine tariff issue.
(HN, 2/22/98)(Econ, 6/30/12, p.35)

1903 Feb 22, The US side of
Niagara Falls ran short of water due to drought.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1903 Feb 22, Hugo Wolf
(b.1860), Austrian composer of Slovene origin, died. He is
particularly noted for his German art songs, or Lieder.
(WSJ, 3/27/07,
p.D7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Wolf)

1905 Feb 22, Japan 1st claimed
the volcanic islets they called Takeshima, located between Japan and
Korea, where they are known as Tokdo (Dokdo). Japan illegally
incorporated Dokdo as its territory through an administrative
measure of one of its prefectures.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.42)(Econ, 4/9/05, p.14)

1907 Feb 22, It was reported
that workers at the refugee camp in San Francisco’s Ingleside
district had agreed the comply with a directive by commander C.M.
Wallenberg to work one day per week for the betterment of the camp
or miss their allotment of free tobacco.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, DB p.58)
1907 Feb 22, The 1st cabs with
taxi meters began operating in London.
(MC, 2/22/02)

1909 Feb 22, The Great White
Fleet returned to Norfolk, Va., from an around-the-world show of
naval power. 1st US fleet to circle the globe.
(HN, 2/22/98)(MC, 2/22/02)

1910 Feb 22, In San Francisco
the Sierra Club, under the leadership of Prof. A.G. McAdie, named 2
peaks of the Sutro Forest. The loftiest peak in the city was named
Mount Davidson in honor of noted English-born geographer George
Davidson (1825-1911), and the other Sutro Crest, in honor of former
mayor and philanthropist Adolph Sutro.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Davidson_%28geographer%29)(SSFC,
2/21/10, DB p.42)

1911 Feb 22, Canadian
Parliament voted to preserve the union with the British Empire.
(HN, 2/22/98)

1920 Feb 22, The American
Relief Administration appealed to the public to pressure Congress to
aid starving European cities.
(HN, 2/22/98)
1920 Feb 22, The 1st artificial
rabbit was used at a dog race track in Emeryville, Calif.
(MC, 2/22/02)

1923 Feb 22, 1st successful
chinchilla farm established in US was in LA, Calif.
(MC, 2/22/02)

1924 Feb 22, Calvin Coolidge
delivered the first presidential radio broadcast from the White
House as he addressed the country over 42 stations.
(AP, 2/22/08)
1924 Feb 22, Columbia
University declared radio education a success.
(HN, 2/22/98)

1928 Feb 22, Australian Bert
Hinkler ended his 11,250-mile adventure in Darwin, Australia, after
flying 128 hours in less than 16 days. The unassuming Hinkler's
grueling flight was little noted by the press until he reached
India, then the world press got caught up in the drama of another
"Lone Eagle" performance so soon after Charles A. Lindbergh's
transatlantic flight. As he plotted a course across Asia and the
Timor Sea using a London Times atlas as his navigational chart, a
newspaper editor dubbed him "Hustling Hinkler," a nickname later
immortalized by the American Tin Pan Alley hit song, "Hustling
Hinkler Up in the Sky."
(HNPD, 2/7/99)

1932 Feb 22, Edward Kennedy,
Massachusetts Senator, was born. He was the brother of John F.
Kennedy who championed the poor.
(HN, 2/22/99)
1932 Feb 22, The first modern
US Purple Heart was awarded. The original Purple Heart, designated
as the Badge of Military Merit, was established by George
Washington, by order from his Newburgh, New York headquarters on
August 7, 1782.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Heart)

1933 Feb 22, Nazi Herman Goring
formed SA/SS-police.
(MC, 2/22/02)

1934 Feb 22, George "Sparky"
Anderson, baseball manager (Reds, Tigers), was born in SD.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1934 Feb 22, The romantic
comedy "It Happened One Night," starring Clark Gable and Claudette
Colbert, opened at New York's Radio City Music Hall.
(AP, 2/22/00)

1935 Feb 22, All plane flights
over the White House were barred because they disturbed President
Roosevelt's sleep.
(HN, 2/22/98)

1943 Feb 22, The battleship USS
Iowa, the first in the Navy’s 45,000 ton class, was commissioned.
The ship carried Pres. Roosevelt to Tehran in Nov. and was
decommissioned in 1990. Also noted as 1st in the 48,000 ton class.
(SFC, 1/27/98, p.A14)(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A6)
1943 Feb 22, In Germany
Christoph Probst (22), Hans (24) and Sophie Scholl (21), student
members of the Die Weisse Rose (White Rose) resistance, were
executed by the Nazis.
(SFC, 9/7/98,
p.A21)(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/rose.html)

1944 Feb 22, Jonathan Demme,
film director (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia), was born in
Baldwin, NY.
(HN, 2/22/01)(MC, 2/22/02)

1946 Feb 22, George Kennan
(1904-2005) sent his “Long Telegram," actually 5 separate cables,
from Moscow to the US State Dept. in Washington explaining that the
Soviet regime was among other things fundamentally insecure, opposed
to the US, and held designs on the world for violent
destabilization. This led to America’s redesign of its foreign
policy to contain Soviet hostility firmly over the long term.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.85)(Econ, 11/12/11, p.97)

1961 Feb 22, The Broadway play
“Come Blow Your Horn" by Neil Simon opened at the Brooks Atkinson
Theater.
(SFC, 10/28/09,
p.D5)(www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=2294)
1961 Feb 22, British Foreign
Sec. Douglas-Home said in a "Top Secret" letter to Defense Minister
Harold Watkinson that, "It must be fully obvious to the Americans
that Hong Kong is indefensible by conventional means and that in the
event of a Chinese attack, nuclear strikes against China would be
the only alternative to complete abandonment of the colony." The
document was made public in 2006.
(AP, 6/30/06)

1962 Feb 22, A Soviet bid for
new Geneva arms talks was turned down by the U.S.
(HN, 2/22/98)

1963 Feb 22, Moscow warned the
U.S. that an attack on Cuba would mean war.
(HN, 2/22/98)

1967 Feb 22, Barbara Garson's
"MacBird!," a notorious counterculture drama, premiered in NYC. It
satirically depicted President Lyndon Johnson as Macbeth and his
wife, Lady Bird Johnson, as Lady Macbeth.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBird)
1967 Feb 22, A report from
Africa indicated that the world's first white gorilla had been
found.
(HN, 2/22/98)
1967 Feb 22, More than 25,000
US and South Vietnamese troops launched Operation Junction City,
aimed at smashing a Vietcong stronghold near the Cambodian border.
(HN, 2/22/99)(AP, 2/22/07)

1973 Feb 22, The United States
and Communist China agreed to establish liaison offices.
(AP, 2/22/99)
1973 Feb 22, Winthrop
Rockefeller (b.1912), two-year term Arkansas Governor (1967-1971),
died of cancer. He was the 4th son of John D. Rockefeller.
(http://archive.rockefeller.edu/bio/winthrop.php)

1974 Feb 22, Cesar Chavez began
a UFW march from Union Square in SF to Gallo headquarters in
Modesto.
(SFEM, 4/13/97, p.11)
1974 Feb 22, Samuel Joseph Byck
(1930–1974), an unemployed former tire salesman, attempted to hijack
a plane flying out of Baltimore-Washington International Airport. He
intended to crash into the White House in hopes of killing US
President Richard M. Nixon. Byck killed pilot Fred Jones and a
aviation officer George Neal Ramsburg before he was shot and wounded
by gunfire through the door of a Delta DC-9 airplane. Byck then shot
himself in the head.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Byck)
1974 Feb 22, Pakistan
officially recognized Bangladesh.
(http://pakistanspace.tripod.com/74.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/58uluz)

1976 Feb 22, Sandra Camille
found her husband, David Stegall, a Dallas dentist, dead with
slashed wrists and a bullet in the left temple. Sandra collected
insurance and re-married 2 years later to Bobby Bridewell, who died
of cancer 2 years later. After 2 more years Sandra married Alan
Rehrig (29). He was found shot dead in 1985, and Sandra again
collected insurance. Sandra embarked on a series of frauds and in
2007 at age 62 was held in North Carolina pending investigations
into her past.
(SFC, 7/6/07, p.B9)

1978 Feb 22, The US Dept. of
Defense launched the 1st of a constellation of satellites that later
made the backbone of the Global Positioning System (GPS). Ivan A.
Getting (1912-2003), a military scientist, conceived the idea and
Bradford Parkinson of Stanford helped implement the system.
(SFC, 10/18/03,
p.A22)(http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/Programs/gps.html)

1979 Feb 22, St. Lucia gained
full independence from Britain and Sir John Compton became the first
prime minister.
(PCh, 1992, p.1072)(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(SFC,
3/22/99, p.A10)

1980 Feb 22, In a stunning
upset, the U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets at Lake
Placid, N.Y., 4-3. The US team went on to win the gold medal.
(AP, 2/22/01)
1980 Feb 22, Afghanistan
declared martial law following a major uprising in Kabul.
(http://tinyurl.com/34hky9)

1982 Feb 22, Alan C. Nelson
(1933-1997) became US Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization
(INS) and served to 1989. In 1994 he co-authored California’s
Proposition 187, an initiative to deny health and education benefits
to illegal immigrants.
(http://149.101.23.2/graphics/aboutus/history/commrs/nelson.html)(SFC,
2/1/97, p.A23)

1984 Feb 22, A 12-year-old
Houston boy known publicly only as "David," died 15 days after being
removed from the bubble for a bone-marrow transplant. He had spent
most his life in a plastic bubble because he had no immunity to
disease.
(AP, 2/22/04)
1984 Feb 22-1984 Mar 16, Iran’s
offensive Operation Kheibar captured the Iraqi Majnoon Islands in
the Haur al-Hawizeh marshes. Britain and the US sent warships to the
Persian Gulf following an Iranian offensive against Iraq.
(HN,
2/22/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War)

1986 Feb 22, Jordan King
Hussein delivered a televised address in which he denounced PLO
leader Yasser Arafat and accused him of reneging of previous
promises made to accept resolutions 242 and 338.
(http://tinyurl.com/mlurr)
1986 Feb 22, In the Philippines
a group of military officers mutinied against Pres. Marcos and holed
him up with a small force at a military camp in Manila, leading to
three days of protests by hundreds of thousands of citizens that
finally toppled him. The Catholic Church’s call for civil
disobedience helped to overthrow the dictatorship of Marcos.
(AP, 8/1/09)(Econ, 10/16/10, p.48)

1987 Feb 22, Pop artist Andy
Warhol died at a New York City hospital at age 58. His parents
belonged to the Carpatho-Rusyns ethnic group. David Bourdon wrote a
study of Warhol in 1989.
(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 4/4/98, p.A24)(AP,
2/22/99)
1987 Feb 22, David Susskind
(66), talk-show host, was found dead in his Manhattan hotel suite.
(AP, 2/22/07)
1987 Feb 22, The Finance
Ministers and Central Bank Governors of six major industrial
countries (Canada, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, United
States, G6) met in Paris and agreed in the Louvre Accord to bring
down the value of the dollar.
(Econ, 4/29/06,
p.82)(www.g7.utoronto.ca/finance/fm870408.htm)

1989 Feb 22, Iran's Ayatollah
Khomeini, who had sentenced author Salman Rushdie to death, said
economic sanctions would not change his stance, and that publication
of Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" was a sign from God that Iran
should not reach out to the West.
(AP, 2/22/99)

1990 Feb 22, Former President
Reagan's videotaped testimony for the trial of former national
security adviser John Poindexter was released in Washington; in his
deposition, Reagan said he never had "any inkling" his aides were
secretly arming the Nicaraguan Contras.
(AP, 2/22/00)

1991 Feb 22, President Bush and
America’s Gulf War allies gave Iraq 24 hours to begin withdrawing
from Kuwait, or face a final all-out attack. Iraq denounced the
“shameful" US ultimatum, aligning itself with a Soviet peace plan
the US had rejected.
(AP, 2/22/01)
1991 Feb 22, The US invaded
Kuwait in the Gulf War Desert Storm and quickly chased out the Iraqi
forces. US soldiers may have been exposed to minute amounts of the
nerve gas agent called Substance 33. Russia had developed the
Novichok family of nerve gases that were designed to be undetectable
by American instruments and they may have been in Iraqi hands at
this time. Gen. Anatoly Diamianovich Kuntsevich was in charge of the
secret development of the gases and post-Soviet disarmament and the
information about the battlefield sensors was revealed by former
Soviet scientist Vil Mirzayanov. Their stories agree.
(TMC, 1994, p.1991)(WSJ, 4/30/96, p.A-14)
1991 Feb 22, US soldiers were
issued the drug pyridostigmine bromide (PB) to counter the effects
of the nerve agents tabun and soman. The drug was prescribed at 3
pills per day, but produced a physical a rush and was abused by many
service people. It was later suspected as a cause of the symptoms of
Gulf War syndrome. The drug was not fully approved by the FDA and
military personnel were not informed of its effects. In 1999 a
2-year Rand analysis concluded that the drug pyridostigmine bromide
could not be excluded as a contributor to Gulf War syndrome. The
drug was given to as many as 300,000 US troops during the Persian
gulf war.
(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.A4)(SFC, 10/19/99, p.A1)

1992 Feb 22, President Bush
renewed his attack on a Democratic tax plan, saying in a radio
address that congressional Democrats were choosing “politics over
duty."
(AP, 2/22/02)
1992 Feb 22, At the Winter
Olympics in Albertville, France, American speedskater Cathy Turner
won the women's 500-meter race.
(AP, 2/22/02)

1993
Feb 22, The UN passed Resolution 808 that established the Hague
Int'l. War Crimes Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons
Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law
committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1 January
1991.
(www.helsinki.org.yu/pubs_text.php?lang=en&idteksta=417)

1994 Feb 22, The Justice
Department charged 31-year CIA counterintelligence veteran Aldrich
H. Ames and his wife, Rosario, with selling national security
secrets to the Soviet Union. He passed information from 1985 to 1994
that included the names of US agents. Ames was later sentenced to
life in prison; his wife received a 5-year term. Ames’ disclosures
led to the execution of at least 10 FBI-recruited Soviet and Warsaw
Pact agents.
(SFC, 11/19/96, p.A17)(AP, 2/22/99)(SSFC, 4/7/02,
p.A14)

1995 Feb 22, Ed Flanders
(b.1934), actor (Dr Westphall-St Elsewhere), committed suicide.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0281130/)
1995 Feb 22, Bill Bailey
(b.1909), a union activist and vice-president of SF dock Local 10,
died. He was a veteran of the Lincoln and Washington battalions
during the Spanish Civil War and a writer and actor in his later
years [see Jul 26, 1935]. The Telegraph Hill cottage in which
he lived, ended up near a MUNI yard at Tulare and Indiana streets,
where it became damaged beyond repair.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SPbailey.htm)(SFC,
6/24/99, p.A19)(SSFC, 3/7/10, p.A2)
1995 Feb 22, Security forces in
Algiers crushed a prison uprising by Islamic extremists, resulting
in 96 deaths by official count.
(AP, 2/22/00)
1995 Feb 22, France accused
four American diplomats and a fifth U.S. citizen of spying, and
asked them to leave the country.
(AP, 2/22/00)

1996 Feb 22, President Clinton
announced he would nominate Alan Greenspan to a third term as
chairman of the Federal Reserve.
(AP, 2/22/01)
1996 Feb 22, The space shuttle
“Columbia" blasted into orbit on a mission to unreel a satellite on
the end of a 12.8-mile cord.
(AP, 2/22/01)
1996 Feb 22, An oil tanker was
freed that ran aground last week after 19 million gallons were
spilled off the coast of Wales.
(WSJ, 2/22/96, p.A-1)
1996 Feb 22, A freight train
derailed in the Colorado Rockies and killed two crew members. Two
cars holding 27,000 gallons of sulfuric acid had broken open and
some spilled down the mountain and onto a highway near Leadville.
(WSJ, 2/22/96, p.A-1)
1996 Feb 22, An F-14 crashed in
the Persian Gulf. It was the 3rd this month and the 32nd since 1991.
The navy says that record is not alarmingly high but ordered the
entire fleet grounded for 72 hours to check for any common threads.
(WSJ, 2/23/96, p.A-1)
1996 Feb 22, Russia and the
head of the International Monetary Fund reached a deal for a loan of
more than ten billion dollars to back up free-market reforms.
(AP, 2/22/01)

1997 Feb 22, The new welfare
law in the US put tens of thousands of people off of food stamps as
of today. The new law stated that adults under age 50 without
children or jobs could only receive food stamps for 3 months in any
3-year period. The law authorized states to contract with private
companies to provide welfare services.
(SFC, 2/22/97, p.A12)(WSJ, 3/19/97, p.A1)(AP,
2/22/02)
1997 Feb 22, It was reported
that the Clinton administration was seeking to have the former El
Salvador rebel, Pedro Antonio Andrade, deported as a terrorist.
(SFC, 2/22/97, p.A7)
1997 Feb 22, Albert Shanker,
the leader of the American Federation of Teachers who championed
public school reforms, died in New York at age 68.
(AP, 2/22/02)

1998 Feb 22, Revival of "King
& I," closed at Neil Simon Theater in NYC after 781
performances.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4673)
1998 Feb 22, In Chicago Louis
Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, spoke before a crowd of
10,000 at McCormick Place. The speech capped a weekend celebration
of the birth of founder W.D. Fard Muhammad. Farrakhan had recently
completed a 37-nation world tour.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A6)
1998 Feb 22, In Peoria, Ill.,
United Auto Workers rejected a new contract with Caterpillar Inc.
The dispute was into its 6th year.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A2)
1998 Feb 22, Abraham A.
Ribicoff, the former Connecticut governor and senator who served as
President Kennedy's secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, died
in Riverdale, N.Y., at age 87.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A5) (AP, 2/22/99)
1998 Feb 22, In Rio de Janeiro
the Palace II, built by Sergio Naya, collapsed during Carnival and 8
people were crushed. The building was built by a construction
company owned by federal deputy Sergio Naya of the Brazilian
Progress Party. Faulty construction was uncovered.
(FT, 3/4/98, p.6)(SFC, 7/8/99,
p.A17)(www.novomilenio.inf.br/humor/0105f002.htm)
1998 Feb 22, The Czech Republic
defeated Russia 1-0 to win men's hockey as the Nagano Winter
Olympics came to a close.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A20)(AP, 2/22/99)
1998 Feb 22, In Chechnya
guerrilla leader Salman Raduyev announced a reconciliation with the
Chechen leadership.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A12)
1998 Feb 22, In India clashes
during voting left 12 dead and over 40 injured across the country.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A12)
1998 Feb 22, In Indonesia the
government banned rallies until mid-March. Government troops last
week killed 5 people and arrested 921 others during riots.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A12)
1998 Feb 22, In Iraq UN
Sec.-Gen’l. Kofi Annan managed to secure an agreement from Saddam
Hussein to allow the inspection process to proceed.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 22, In Sri Lanka rebel
gunboats attacked a 12-ship convoy carrying soldiers to northern Sri
Lanka. Up to 70 people were killed when 2 vessels were sunk. Rebel
casualties were estimated at 30. At least 6 of the 25 rebel boats
were destroyed.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.A12)

1999 Feb 22, In NYC Mayor
Giuliani put into effect a plan that allowed police to seize the
vehicles of drunken drivers.
(SFEC, 2/20/99, p.A2)
1999 Feb 22, IBM planned to
unveil a new microchip that included both logic functions and memory
functions.
(SFC, 2/22/99, p.B2)
1999 Feb 22, Levi Strauss,
falling victim to a fashion generation gap, announced that it would
close 11 of 22 US plants and lay off 5,900 factory workers.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A1)(AP, 2/22/00)
1999 Feb 22, The Pinkerton
detective agency was sold to the Swedish company Securitas AB for
$384 million.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.C4)
1999 Feb 22, In Austria it was
reported that McDonald's had opened new experimental sites dubbed
McCafe to compete with the local coffeehouses.
(SFC, 2/22/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 22, In Bangladesh
strikes began during municipal elections and violence was
widespread.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.T14)
1999 Feb 22, In Brussels,
Belgium, some 30,000 farmers rallied to demand that EU agricultural
ministers shield them from farm subsidy cuts.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A14)
1999 Feb 22, In Iraq security
forces fought demonstrations for a 3rd day over the slaying of
Muslim cleric Sadeq Sadr. There were unconfirmed reports that as
many as 300 people were killed in the riots.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A8)(WSJ, 2/23/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 22, Governor elections
in Quintana Roo were held to replace Gov. Mario Villanueva, whose
term was scheduled to end Apr 5. Federal authorities wished to
charge the governor with drug money laundering, but he was immune
while holding office. His Swiss bank account was said to hold $73
million. The PRI won the statehouse with just over 43% of the vote.
In Hidalgo the PRI took the governorship with a 50% of the vote.
Joaquin Hendricks won the election in Quintana Roo.
(SFEC, 2/21/99, p.A23)(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A14)(SFC,
4/1/99, p.C2)
1999 Feb 22, From Mexico it was
reported that fisherman found 9 dead gray whales in the Magdalena
Bay.
(SFC, 2/22/99, p.A14)

2000 Feb 22, Sen. John McCain
beat Gov. George W. Bush in the Michigan primary 50-43% and in the
Arizona primary 60-30%.
(SFC, 2/23/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 22, Over 200 truckers
gathered in Washington DC to protest high diesel prices.
(SFC, 2/23/00, p.A3)
2000 Feb 22, The space shuttle
Endeavour and its crew of 6 returned to Cape Canaveral with over a
weeks worth of radar images to map Earth.
(SFC, 2/23/00, p.A2)
2000 Feb 22, In Missouri Jake
Robel (6) of Blue Springs was caught in a seat belt and dragged to
death when Kim L. Davis (34) stole his mothers car.
(SFC, 2/24/00, p.A7)
2000 Feb 22, In Jordan a
15-year-old boy strangled his sister (14) in a "crime of honor"
because he considered her to have shamed his family. An autopsy
revealed that the girl was a virgin.
(SFC, 2/25/00, p.D4)
2000 Feb 22, Cyclone Eline hit
Mozambique and 3 people were electrocuted in Beira from fallen power
cables. Earlier torrential rains killed 67 people and displaced some
211,000.
(SFC, 2/23/00, p.A10)(SFC, 2/23/00, p.A11)
2000 Feb 22, In Nepal police
killed 19 Maoist rebels in the Midwestern mountains. The police
operation followed days after guerrillas killed 15 policemen and
injured another 16 in the bombing of a police station.
(SFC, 2/24/00, p.A14)
2000 Feb 22, In Spain a car
bomb killed Fernando Buesa, a Socialist Party leader in Vitoria, and
his bodyguard Jorge Diez Elorza (27).
(SFC, 2/23/00, p.A14)

2001 Feb 22, President Bush
held his first full-fledged presidential news conference, in which
he defended his tax-cutting and budget-tightening plans and gave FBI
director Louis Freeh a vote of confidence following the arrest of
veteran agent Robert Hanssen on spying charges.
(AP, 2/22/02)
2001 Feb 22, The California
state PUC voted to absolve PG&E and Southern California Edison
of responsibility for costs above the revenue they collect from
ratepayers.
(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A3)
2001 Feb 22, Jose Juarez
Rosales (24) was arrested in Dallas for alleged multiple sexual
assaults and murders in Ciudad Juarez.
(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A17)
2001 Feb 22, Ashley Ellerin
(22), former girlfriend of actor Ashton Kutcher, was found dead in
her Hollywood Hills home. In 2008 police matched DNA linking
Michael Gargiulo (32), an air conditioning repairman, to her murder
and to another fatal stabbing of a Monterey Park woman in 2005. They
also suspect Gargiulo in the 1993 killing of a high school girl in
the Chicago suburb of Glenview, where Gargiulo lived at the time.
Tricia Pacaccio, a senior at Glenbrook South High School, was found
stabbed to death on her front doorstep, clutching her door key.
(AP,
8/30/08)(www.lapdonline.org/february_2001/news_view/23272)
2001 Feb 22, In Indonesia
security forces fought to disperse crowds in Sampit as ethnic
clashes in Central Kalimantan province of Borneo left over 100 dead.
(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A16)
2001 Feb 22, A UN tribunal on
Yugoslav War Crimes found 3 Bosnian Serbs guilty of crimes against
humanity for the rape, torture and enslavement of Muslim women in
Foca between 1992-1993. The landmark case established rape and
sexual enslavement as a crime against humanity. They were sentenced
to 28, 20 and 12 years, respectively.
(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A1)(AP, 11/1/07)
2001 Feb 22, India extended a
Kashmir cease-fire.
(WSJ, 2/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 22, Pakistan said it
may put nuclear missiles on its submarines. It recently acquired 3
submarines from France.
(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A20)
2001 Feb 22, In Spain 2 people
were killed when suspected Basque separatists bombed a train station
in San Sebastian. Separately French police arrested the alleged ETA
military chief.
(WSJ, 2/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 22, In Sri Lanka
rebels extended a unilateral cease-fire and said they wanted peace
talks.
(SFC, 2/23/01, p.A20)
2001 Feb 22, A financial crises
in Turkey forced the government to let the lira float and it dropped
40% to 960,000 to the US dollar. By the end of the year the economy
sank 9.4%.
(SFC, 2/23/01, p.D4)(WSJ, 2/23/01, p.A11)(WSJ,
4/2/03, p.A14)

2002 Feb 22, An Alabama jury
found Monsanto and its corporate successors (Solutia Inc.) guilty of
releasing tons of PCBs in Anniston between 1935-1979. In 2004 some
18,447 plaintiffs were scheduled to an average of $7,725, while 27
lawyers were scheduled to receive over $4 million each.
(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A7)(SFC, 3/24/04, p.A5)
2002 Feb 22, The California
state Supreme Court struck down the “Son of Sam" law that required
felons to turn over profits from books and movies to their victims.
(SFC, 2/22/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 22, Police in San
Diego arrested David Westerfield in connection with the
disappearance of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam. Westerfield was later
sentenced to death for Danielle's murder.
(AP, 2/22/07)
2002 Feb 22, A New Jersey
teenager (16) was arrested for killing 6 people in a 2-day shooting
spree on the outskirts of Philadelphia that began Feb 4.
(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 22, Chuck Jones,
cartoon animator, died at age 89. His work included Bugs Bunny,
Daffy Duck and Road Runner. His books included “Chuck Amuck" (1989).
(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A2)(SFC, 2/27/02, p.D2)(WSJ,
3/1/02, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/12/05, p.P14)
2002 Feb 22, In Angola
government troops reportedly killed UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi
(67) in Moxico province.
(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 22, Colombia began to
airlift some 34,000 soldiers of the elite Rapid Deployment Force
into San Vicente del Caguan, the largest town in the FARC territory.
(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A9)(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.A18)
2002 Feb 22, Madagascar
declared a 3-month state of emergency after the main opposition
leader, Marc Ravalomanana, declared himself president following a
2-month dispute.
(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A11)
2002 Feb 22, In Nepal rebels
attacked a police post and killed at least 32 officers. They killed
5 bus passengers in a separate attack. The army said 10 rebels were
killed in other fighting. Rebels called a 2-day nationwide general
strike.
(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A12)(SSFC, 2/24/02, p.A20)
2002 Feb 22, In Russia an AN-26
military cargo plane crashed in Lakhta and 17 people were killed.
(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A12)
2002 Feb 22, Pakistan
complained over the US sale to India of surveillance radar, the
AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder system.
(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 22, Sri Lanka and
Tamil Tiger rebels signed a Norwegian long-term cease-fire plan. The
death toll stood at more than 65,000 when the cease-fire was signed.
(SFC, 2/23/02, p.A9)(AP, 7/3/06)

2003 Feb 22, Pres. Bush told
Spain’s PM Aznar that nations like Mexico, Angola, Chile and
Cameroon must know that the security of the United States is at
stake. Bush threatened nations with retaliation if they did not vote
for a UN resolution backing the Iraq war. A transcript of a meeting
on this day, one month before the US-led invasion of Iraq, was
published in the El Pais daily in 2007.
(AFP, 9/26/07)
2003 Feb 22, Jesica Santillan,
the teenager who'd survived a botched heart-lung transplant long
enough to get a second set of donated organs, died two days after
the second transplant at Duke University Medical Center in North
Carolina.
(AP, 2/22/04)
2003 Feb 22, In northern
Afghanistan at least six civilians were killed when factional
fighting broke out between 2 rival warlords in Faryab province.
(AP, 2/23/03)
2003 Feb 22,
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan invited India to join their
$3.2-billion natural gas pipeline project, indicating the plan would
not be economically viable without New Delhi's participation.
(AP, 2/22/03)
2003 Feb 22, Israeli
troops opened fire on a crowd in Nablus after clashes erupted while
soldiers were searching door to door for militants. 2 Palestinians
were killed in the gunfire.
(AP, 2/22/03)
2003 Feb 22, In Rome,
Italy, some 2,000 cat lovers marched in the city's 1st Cat Pride
march and demanded protection for the many, local stray cats.
(SSFC, 2/23/03, A2)
2003 Feb 22, In southern
Pakistan gunmen opened fire inside a Shiite mosque, killing at least
9 worshippers and injuring at least 10 others.
(AP, 2/22/03)(SSFC, 2/23/03, A17)

2004 Feb 22, The final TV
episode of "Sex and the City" aired after a 6-season run.
(SFC, 2/23/04, p.A2)
2004 Feb 22, Ralph Nader
announced that he would run for the US presidency.
(SFC, 2/23/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 22, In San Jose, Ca.,
Ranbir Singh (43) opened fire a group of Sikh men playing cards and
killed 3. Singh was killed after the group turned on him.
(SFC, 2/23/04, p.A1)(SFC, 2/24/04, p.A15)
2004 Feb 22, US and British
special forces reportedly had cornered Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin
Laden in a mountainous area in northwest Pakistan, near the
Afghanistan border.
(AP, 2/22/04)
2004 Feb 22, In Angola a tanker
truck carrying gasoline exploded near the capital of Luanda, killing
18 people and injuring 87.
(AP, 2/23/04)
2004 Feb 22, At least 66 people
died in weekend clashes among Colombian troops, leftist rebels and
right-wing paramilitary forces.
(AP, 2/23/04)
2004 Feb 22, In southeast Congo
a militia led by a commander named "Cut-Throat" massacred more than
100 civilians and soldiers.
(AP, 2/24/04)
2004 Feb 22, Giorgio Armani
signed a $1 billion hotel venture with Dubai’s Emaar Properties.
(Econ, 2/28/04, p.61)
2004 Feb 22, In Haiti rebels
attacked the government's last major stronghold in the north,
Cap-Haitien, and witnesses reported hearing gunfire on the outskirts
of the city.
(AP, 2/22/04)
2004 Feb 22, In Iran hard-line
Islamic candidates appeared likely to take control in the liberal
stronghold of Tehran and held a wide lead nationwide after
parliamentary elections from which hundreds of liberal candidates
were barred.
(AP, 2/22/04)
2004 Feb 22, Gunmen
attacked Iraqi police in two northern Iraqi cities, sparking clashes
that killed two attackers. Meanwhile, jailed former Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein wrote a letter to his family for the international
Red Cross to deliver.
(AP, 2/22/04)
2004 Feb 22, In Israel a
suicide bomber blew himself up on a crowded Jerusalem bus, killing
eight people and wounding 59.
(AP, 2/22/04)
2004 Feb 22, Japanese
authorities confirmed the nation's 10th case of mad cow disease
since the first sick animal was discovered in September 2001.
(AP, 2/22/04)
2004 Feb 22, In Nepal a land
mine exploded beneath a bus carrying Nepalese soldiers, killing
three people and injuring 15 others.
(AP, 2/22/04)
2004 Feb 22, An Islamic state
in Nigeria that is at the heart of a spreading Africa polio outbreak
declared it would not relent on its boycott of a mass vaccination
program which it called a U.S. plot to spread AIDS and infertility
among Muslims.
(AP, 2/22/04)

2005 Feb 22, A Virginia man was
charged with plotting with al-Qaida to kill President Bush. Ahmed
Omar Abu Ali was convicted on all counts in November 2005.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2005 Feb 22, The DJIA fell 174
points to 10,611 as oil prices soared to $51.15 per barrel. The Euro
closed up at $1.326.
(SFC, 2/23/05, p.C1)
2005 Feb 22, Supermarket giant
Winn-Dixie Stores Inc., which has struggled to compete with Wal-Mart
Supercenters and other grocery chains, said it has filed for
bankruptcy reorganization.
(AP, 2/22/05)
2005 Feb 22, Researchers at
Texas Tech Univ. reported that the rocket fuel perchlorate has been
found in women’s breast milk at 5 times the average level found in
dairy milk.
(SFC, 2/23/05, p.A6)
2005 Feb 22, PM John Howard
said Australia will send an extra 450 troops to Iraq to help protect
a Japanese humanitarian mission and bolster the country's transition
to democracy.
(AP, 2/22/05)
2005 Feb 22, In Belgium a Nato
summit announced a 12-year program to destroy Soviet-era weapons in
Ukraine. Ukraine’s Pres. Viktor Yushchenko attended.
(WSJ, 2/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 22, Britain said it
will impose new penalties on Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican
Army-linked party, as punishment for the IRA's alleged robbery of a
Belfast bank.
(AP, 2/22/05)
2005 Feb 22, Buckingham Palace
said Queen Elizabeth III would not attend the civil marriage
ceremony of her son Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, but
that her absence should not be interpreted as a snub.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2005 Feb 22, In Colombia
government soldiers killed eight rebels over the past 2 days and
discovered a large cache of weapons in dense southern jungles.
(AP, 2/22/05)
2005 Feb 22, A US human rights
advocacy group said the Egyptian government had shown a "shameless"
lack of accountability by failing to name the 2,400 people it had
detained for the Oct 7 Sinai terror attacks. Relatives were not told
where they are held.
(AP, 2/22/05)(WSJ, 2/23/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 22, The EU intends to
end its ban on arms sales to China, French Pres. Jacques Chirac said
after talks with Pres. Bush, who highlighted Washington's security
concerns.
(AP, 2/22/05)
2005 Feb 22, In Indonesia Aceh
separatists announced they are ready to accept increased autonomy
rather than independence.
(WSJ, 2/23/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 22, In central Iran’s
Kerman province a 6.4 earthquake flattened villages and collapsed
mud-brick homes, killing over 500 people and injuring nearly 1,000.
(AP, 2/23/05)(SFC, 2/24/05, p.A11)
2005 Feb 22, Interim Iraqi Vice
President Ibrahim al-Jaafari was chosen as his Shiite ticket's
candidate for prime minister after Ahmad Chalabi dropped his bid.
(AP, 2/22/05)
2005 Feb 22, Montenegro's
President Filip Vujanovic and PM Milo Djukanovic proposed the
peaceful disintegration of Serbia-Montenegro, suggesting that the
two former Yugoslav republics recognize each other as sovereign
states.
(AP, 2/23/05)
2005 Feb 22, It was reported
that Norway finished 2004 with the world’s best performing equities
market, based on nominal return on equity investment in dollar
terms.
(WSJ, 2/22/05, p.C20)
2005 Feb 22, Palestinian Prime
Minister Ahmed Qureia promised a drastic overhaul of his Cabinet,
signaling the start of long-sought reform.
(AP, 2/22/05)
2005 Feb 22, Zdzislaw
Beksinski, a surrealist painter who was one of Poland's leading
contemporary artists, was found stabbed to death at his Warsaw home.
(AP, 2/22/05)

2006 Feb 22, South Dakota’s
Senate advanced a law banning abortion in virtually all cases, with
the intention of forcing the Supreme Court to reconsider its 1973
decision legalizing the procedure. The law, which would punish
doctors who perform the operation with a five-year prison term and a
$5,000 fine, awaits the signature of Republican Gov. Michael Rounds
and people on both sides of the issue say he is unlikely to veto it.
(Reuters, 2/22/06)(WSJ, 2/23/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 22, In Lincoln,
Nebraska, 8 workers at a meat processing plant claimed the record
$365 million Powerball jackpot.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, A Rhode Island
jury found 3 companies, Sherwin-Williams, NL Industries and
Millennium Holdings, liable for creating a public nuisance by
selling lead paint decades ago, and that the companies should pay to
clean it up from homes and buildings in the state.
(WSJ, 2/23/06, p.D7)
2006 Feb 22-2006 Feb 25, The
annual Technology Entertainment Design (TED) conference took place
in Monterey, Ca., with over 900 participants.
(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 22, In northern
Afghanistan a bomb exploded near a NATO peacekeeping convoy, killing
one Afghan civilian and wounding 12 people.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, Former US
President Bill Clinton and Australia announced plans to combat AIDS
in China, Vietnam and Papua New Guinea, warning that 40 percent of
all new infections could be in the Asia-Pacific region by 2010.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, In England thieves
impersonated police officers and robbed the equivalent of up to $85
million from Securitas Cash Management Ltd., a cash center at
Tonbridge in Kent county, in one of the largest heists in British
history. In 2008 five men were convicted over country's biggest cash
robbery, which saw some 53 million pounds stolen in southeast
England. In 2009 Paul Allen (31) was sentenced to 18 years in prison
for his role in the robbery. Allen had fled to Morocco after the
robbery and was extradited last year. In 2010 Ibrahim Lee Murray
(32), believed to be the mastermind of the robbery, was sentenced in
Morocco to 10 years in jail on various charges including membership
of a criminal gang, theft with an armed weapon, wearing an illegal
uniform and kidnapping.
(Reuters, 2/23/06)(AP, 2/27/06)(AP, 1/28/08)(AP,
10/5/09)(AP, 6/3/10)
2006 Feb 22, Bulgaria's
parliament endorsed a government decision to send a 120-member
non-combat unit to Iraq.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, In China Yu
Dongyue, a man who was jailed for throwing paint on Mao Zedong's
portrait overlooking Beijing's Tiananmen Square during pro-democracy
protests in 1989, was released after nearly 17 years in prison.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 22, Wu Hao, Chinese
filmmaker, was detained for allegedly working on a documentary film
on Christian churches not recognized by the Chinese government. Wu
had returned to China in 2004 after 12 years in the US. He was
released on July 11.
(WSJ, 7/3/06, p.A1)(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Feb 22, In Costa Rica
results from the Feb 5 elections indicated that Oscar Arias, a free
trade proponent, had won Costa Rica's presidential election by
18,167 votes, one of the country's closest races ever.
(AP, 2/22/06)(WSJ, 2/23/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 22, In Ecuador 2 dozen
pipeline workers held hostage by protesters escaped as soldiers and
police battled to end violent demonstrations that have interrupted
the flow of crude through the country's two main pipelines.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, Imprisoned
Egyptian opposition leader Ayman Nour asked US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice to look into whether Egypt can benefit from a US
offer to help developing countries develop nuclear energy.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, Michaela
Giersberg, a nursing assistant, was convicted in Bonn, Germany, of
killing 9 women she had been caring for from 2003-2005. She was
sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, Indonesia said a
27-year-old woman died of bird flu earlier in the week in Jakarta
and authorities prepared to scour the capital for infected poultry.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, In Indonesia's
Papua province production at the world's largest gold and copper
mine, run by a local unit of New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan
Copper & Gold Inc, was suspended after illegal miners blocked
the road leading to the site.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, Iran offered to
help finance a Palestinian Authority run by the Hamas militant
group, state radio said in a report that brought a quick warning
from Israel that it would do all it could legally to stop the
Palestinians from receiving the money.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, In Iraq suspected
Sunni extremists dressed as police set off a large explosion that
heavily damaged the golden dome of the Askariya shrine in Samarra,
one of Iraq's most famous Shiite shrines. The attack spawned mass
protests and triggered reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques. The
shrine contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th imams, Ali al-Hadi,
who died in 868 A.D., and his son Hassan al-Askari, who died in 874
A.D. and was the father of Al-Mahdi, the hidden imam. Atwar Bahjat,
a well-known Iraqi TV journalist, was abducted while covering the
bombing. In 2009 police arrested Yasser Mohammad al-Takhy in
southwest Baghdad along with three others for the rape and murder of
Bahjat. In 2011 Yusri Fakhir, a Tunisian man, was convicted and
executed for the bombing of the Askariya shrine.
(AP, 2/22/06)(WSJ, 2/23/06, p.A1)(AP, 8/5/09)(AP,
11/17/11)
2006 Feb 22, In Iraq 7 US
soldiers were killed by a roadside bombs in Hawija north of Baghdad.
(AP, 2/23/06)(SFC, 2/24/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 22, A Tokyo court
convicted and sentenced Fusako Shigenobu (60), a founder of the
Japanese Red Army terrorist group, to 20 years in prison for
kidnapping and attempted murder in a 1974 attack on the French
Embassy in the Hague.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 22, Kazakhstan's
intelligence chief resigned after several of his subordinates were
arrested on suspicion of involvement in the slaying of an opposition
leader. Erzhan Utembaev, the top administrative official of the
Senate, was arrested for ordering the murder of opposition leader
Altynbek Sarsenbayev.
(AP, 2/22/06)(Econ, 3/4/06, p.40)
2006 Feb 22, In Nepal police
raided the house of Krishna Sitaula, a senior opposition leader
instrumental in organizing anti-government protests, and arrested
him two days after he was freed by the Supreme Court on similar
charges.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, In Nigeria at
least 20 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the eastern Nigerian
city of Onitsha. Gangs of rioters armed with machetes and shotguns
poured through the streets of the mainly Christian southern city as
the death toll from days of Christian-Muslim violence across Nigeria
rose to at least 93.
(AP, 2/22/06)(Reuters, 2/22/06)(SFC, 2/23/06,
p.A13)
2006 Feb 22, In the Philippines
thousands of activists seeking President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's
ouster clashed with riot police in Manila as they tried to march to
a monument to the 1986 "people power" revolt.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, Serb security
officials insisted that top war crimes fugitive Gen. Ratko Mladic
had been located and that authorities were trying to persuade him to
give himself up.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, Spanish PM Jose
Luis Rodriguez Zapatero expressed reticence about a takeover bid for
leading domestic electricity group Endesa by E.ON of Germany, saying
national interest was paramount. In July Spain’s energy regulator
(CNE) imposed 19 conditions on the bid for Endesa. On Aug 25 EU
regulators warned that government restrictions on E.ON’s bid were
illegal.
(AP, 2/22/06)(Econ, 9/2/06, p.58)
2006 Feb 22, A secret list
compiled for the UN Security council said Sudan's interior and
defense ministers and its national intelligence chief are among 17
people the UN Security Council should punish for blocking peace in
Darfur.
(Reuters, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 22, Pope Benedict XVI
named 15 new cardinals, including John Paul II's longtime private
secretary and prelates from Boston and Hong Kong, adding his first
installment to the elite group of churchmen who will elect his
successor.
(AP, 2/22/06)

2007 Feb 22, The Bush
administration announced its plan to have US inspectors oversee
Mexican trucking companies that carry cargo across the border.
Mexico responded to the US announcement by saying it will allow
trucks from 100 US companies to travel across the border. The news
that Mexican trucks will be allowed to haul freight deeper into the
US drew an angry reaction the next day from labor leaders, safety
advocates and members of Congress.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 22, The US General
Accountability Office said it will cost at least $ 12 billion to
clean up contamination from tens of thousands of gasoline storage
tanks that were leaking underground.
(SFC, 2/23/07, p.A9)
2007 Feb 22, A US federal judge
ordered Microsoft to pay $1.52 billion to Alcatel-Lucent SA for
infringing a patent on a fundamental technology for digital music.
(WSJ, 2/23/07, p.A3)
2007 Feb 22, Tongsun Park (71),
a South Korean businessman, was sentenced in NY to 5 years in prison
for accepting at least $2 million to work on Iraq’s behalf to
influence the UN oil-for-food program.
(SFC, 2/23/07, p.A3)
2007 Feb 22, Police clashed
with demonstrators protesting the visit of Vice President Dick
Cheney hours before he arrived in Australia to thank one of
Washington's staunchest supporters in the increasingly unpopular war
in Iraq.
(AP, 2/22/07)
2007 Feb 22, Female tennis
stars hailed an announcement that women would receive the same prize
money as men at this year's Wimbledon tennis championships after
years of dogged campaigning.
(AFP, 2/22/07)
2007 Feb 22, Britain's Ministry
of Defense announced that Prince Harry, a second lieutenant in the
British army, would be deployed to Iraq. Officials later reversed
the decision because of insurgent threats.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2007 Feb 22, In Colombia Jorge
Noguera, a former director of the secret police under President
Alvaro Uribe, was arrested and charged in connection with the
murders of labor leaders and academics while collaborating with
far-right militias responsible for some of Colombia's worst
massacres. In Cali, Colombia, confused hit men on the lookout for
two men in a white sedan gun down the wrong people. Then they spot
their intended targets, in the same traffic jam 20 yards away. And
killed them, too. It was all caught on a traffic camera.
(AP, 2/23/07)(AP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 22, Estonia's
president vetoed legislation calling for the removal of a Soviet war
memorial, averting at least temporarily a confrontation with Russia.
Estonia chose Baltic herring over the pike in a government-sponsored
contest to find a fish suitable to join the blue, black and white
flag, the blue cornflower, limestone, and chimney swallow as
national symbols.
(AP, 2/22/07)(http://tinyurl.com/2l7acu)
2007 Feb 22, Abdel Kareem Nabil
(22), an Egyptian blogger arrested in 2006, was convicted of
insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced to four
years in prison in Egypt's first prosecution of a blogger. Nabil was
convicted for calling Islam a brutal religion in a piece he wrote in
2005 after Muslim worshippers attacked a Coptic Christian church in
Alexandria. In 2009 an Appeals court upheld his 4-year sentence.
Nabil, aka Kareem Amer, was released on Nov 5, 2010, and then
re-arrested, held for 11 days and beaten.
(AP, 2/22/07)(AP, 12/22/09)(AP,
11/17/10)(Reuters, 11/24/10)
2007 Feb 22, Gambia expelled
Fadzai Gwaradzimba, the UN chief representative in the country,
after she expressed doubts over President Yahya Jammeh's claims to
cure AIDS. Jammeh had claimed to have mystical powers and herbs to
treat HIV/AIDS and asthma within three days.
(www.aegis.com/news/afp/2007/AF070285.html)(Econ,
4/28/07, p.54)
2007 Feb 22, Lothar-Guenther
Buchheim (89), the German author and art collector best known for
his 1973 autobiographical novel, "Das Boot," died. In 1981, the book
was turned into an acclaimed German film starring Juergen Prochnow
that detailed the hopelessness of war and its effect on sailors
living in the cramped confines of their submarine.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 22, In Guatemala a top
police official and three other officers were arrested in the
killings of three Central American Parliament members, including the
son of the alleged founder of El Salvador's death squads.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 22, A fire broke out
on an Indonesian ferry carrying 300 passengers. The number of dead,
soon climbed to 49. Scores of passengers jumped into the sea and 120
people remained missing.
(AFP, 2/23/07)(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 22, The UN nuclear
watchdog agency said Iran had ignored a Security Council ultimatum
to freeze uranium enrichment, and instead had expanded its program
by setting up hundreds of centrifuges.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2007 Feb 22, An official said 4
Iraqi soldiers have been accused of raping a 50-year-old Sunni woman
on Feb 8 and the attempted rape of her two daughters in the second
allegation of sexual assault leveled against Iraqi forces this week.
Issa Abdul-Razzaq Ahmed (22), a suspected al-Qaida-linked insurgent
leader accused of financing attacks and recruiting fighters, was
captured in southern Iraq. 3 US soldiers were killed in combat in
Anbar province.
(AP, 2/22/07)(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 22, The Israeli daily
Haaretz reported that Syria has embarked on an "unprecedented"
effort to bolster its armed forces with Iranian and Russian help.
(AP, 2/22/07)
2007 Feb 22, A court ordered
Malaysia's government to pay a 69-year-old British man $857,000 for
seizing his passport and preventing him from leaving the country in
Dec, 1981.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 22, In Mozambique
roofs were blown off, trees uprooted and power lines cut by the
force of a tropical cyclone which slammed into coastal regions. The
storm killed four people and injured at least 70 in the resort town
of Vilanculos, where thousands of homes were destroyed along with
the hospital and power grid.
(AFP, 2/22/07)(Reuters, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 22, Russia’s
government approved a five-year financing plan aimed to decrease
mortality from diseases including diabetes, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS
and cancer. The news came as the state statistics agency said
Russia's population dropped by more than 560,000 last year to 142.2
million, a new post-Soviet low.
(AP, 2/22/07)
2007 Feb 22, Sam Hinga Norman
(67), a former government minister on trial for allegedly overseeing
a militia accused of torturing and mutilating civilians during
Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war, died at a Senegalese hospital.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 22, Extremists in
Somalia threatened to carry out suicide attacks against African
Union peacekeepers who are to begin deploying in the coming days.
(AP, 2/22/07)
2007 Feb 22, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to extend the UN mission in East Timor for
a year and beef up the international police force ahead of upcoming
elections.
(AP, 2/22/07)

2008 Feb 22, Arizona Republican
Rep. Rick Renzi was indicted on charges of extortion, wire fraud,
money laundering and other matters in an Arizona land swap scam that
allegedly helped him collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in
payoffs.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 22, John Heath (81)
was sentenced In Los Angeles to 28 years in prison in an investment
scam that prosecutors say seeped across half the country and bilked
1,800 people, many of them elderly, of about $190 million.
(AP, 2/23/08)
2008 Feb 22, In Texas 3 British
bankers were sentenced to just over three years in prison for their
roles in a fraudulent scheme with former Enron Chief Financial
Officer Andrew Fastow, and they're hoping to serve some of that time
back home.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 22, The US FDA granted
accelerated market approval for Genentech’s drug Avastin to treat
advanced breast cancer. The drug cost was bout $7,700 per month.
Avastin was already approved for colorectal and lung cancer.
(WSJ, 2/23/08, p.A3)
2008 Feb 22, Canadian Foreign
Minister Maxime Bernier pledged $555 million in fresh aid to Haiti,
as he wrapped up a three-day visit to the impoverished Caribbean
nation.
(Reuters, 2/23/08)
2008 Feb 22, In China 4 men
pleaded guilty in a Yunnan court to producing bogus receipts valued
at $147 billion. The scam operated in 9 provinces. In 2007 almost
3,000 cases of printing fake receipts were uncovered.
(Econ, 3/1/08, p.70)
2008 Feb 22, The European Space
Agency (ESA) said on Ulysses, a US-European space scout that has
been orbiting the Sun for 17 years, almost four times its expected
lifetime, is on the brink of dying.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 22, The German finance
ministry threatened to tax all financial transfers to Liechtenstein
unless the Alpine principality relaxed its banking secrecy codes and
helped trace tax evaders.
(AFP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 22, An angry mob in
Guatemala, that took 29 policemen hostage a day earlier, released
the officers in exchange for talks with the government on legalizing
their lands and possibly dropping charges against a jailed farm
leader.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 22, Muqtada al-Sadr
announced that he has extended a cease-fire order to his Shiite
Mahdi Army by another six months. A bomb hidden under a horse-drawn
cart exploded in downtown Baghdad, killing three civilians. 2
policemen died when a booby-trapped car exploded in Tikrit.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 22, In New Zealand a
key conference on cluster bombs ended in Wellington with most of the
122 governments represented backing a draft treaty banning the
deadly weapons.
(AFP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 22, North Korea opened
its main nuclear reactor to foreign media for the first time in a
bid to show that it is complying with a disarmament accord to
disable the facility.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 22, In Pakistan
roadside bomb exploded as a wedding party was passing nearby in the
volatile northwest, killing at least 10 people and wounding four
others.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 22, Majed Barghouti
(44), a Hamas preacher, died in the custody of the Palestinian
intelligence service. The next day his family alleged that he had
been tortured by interrogators from the rival Fatah faction.
(AP, 2/23/08)
2008 Feb 22, Serbs protesting
Kosovo's independence for a fifth straight day Friday attacked UN
police guarding a key bridge in northern Kosovo with stones, glass
bottles and firecrackers.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 22, South Africa and
India agreed to allow businessmen traveling between the two
countries multiple entry visas, as part of several agreements signed
in Pretoria.
(AFP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 22, In Sri Lanka
clashes broke out in at least six locations in northern Jaffna,
Mannar, Vavuniya districts and Welioya, leaving 31 rebels and one
soldier dead.
(AP, 2/23/08)
2008 Feb 22, In Tunisia 2
Austrian tourists were kidnapped. Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa
later claimed responsibility and warned western tourists to stay
away. The 2 tourists were released on October 31.
(AFP, 3/11/08)(WSJ, 3/11/08, p.A1)(AP, 10/31/08)

2009 Feb 22, The film "Slumdog
Millionaire," a tale of hope amid adversity and squalor in Mumbai,
came away with 8 Oscars, including best picture and director for
Danny Boyle. Sean Penn won his second best-actor Oscar, this one for
playing slain gay-rights pioneer Harvey Milk in "Milk," while Kate
Winslet took best actress for "The Reader," in which she plays a
former concentration camp guard. Heath Ledger (d.2008) won as best
supporting actor in “The Dark Knight"; Penelope Cruz won as best
supporting actress for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona."
(AP, 2/23/09)(SFC, 2/23/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 22, Mississippi Gov.
Barbour said he would join Louisiana Gov. Jindal in turning down
federal incentives to expand unemployment insurance coverage.
(WSJ, 2/23/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 22, In eastern Algeria
9 members of a private security firm were killed when Islamist
militants attacked their base near Jijel.
(AFP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 22, In Brazil bubbles,
feathers and glitter swirled on the first night of parades in Rio's
Carnival, as the city's samba schools battled it out for top honors
in what many bill as the world's largest party.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 22, In Brisbane,
Australia, Father Peter Kennedy (71), a rebel Catholic priest who
was sacked for blessing gay couples and allowing women to preach,
defied his archbishop and led mass.
(AFP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 22, In northern China
a gas explosion ripped through a coal mine outside Taiyuan, capital
of the main coal-producing province of Shanxi, killing at least 77
miners and trapping dozens in the deadliest Chinese coal mine
accident in more than a year.
(AFP, 2/22/09)(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 22, In Egypt a group
of French teenagers on a school trip was hit hard by a bombing at
Cairo’s famed 14th century Khan al-Khalili bazaar. The attack killed
a 17-year-old French girl and wounded another 24 people: 17 French,
three Saudis, three Egyptians and a German. Egyptian police soon
arrested three suspects. On May 23 Egyptian authorities said they
had arrested seven people for being part of an al-Qaida linked group
accused of carrying out the attack. They included two Palestinians,
two Egyptians, a British-Egyptian, a Belgian-Tunisian and a
French-Albanian woman, some of whom had entered Egypt as students.
(AP, 2/23/09)(AP, 5/23/09)
2009 Feb 22, The bodies of four
people were found in a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border,
a day after another body was discovered in the area. Border
officials said about 1,000 university students and holders of
foreign residency permits were eligible to cross, and by
mid-afternoon, about 600 people had made the trip.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 22, The heads of
Europe's largest economies agreed on the need for greater regulation
of financial markets and of products such as hedge funds, as they
met in Berlin to hammer out a joint European position for the G20
meeting in London on April 2.
(AFP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 22, In Greece Vassilis
Palaiokostas (44) and his Albanian accomplice Alket Rizaj staged a
2nd getaway by helicopter. Palaiokostas was serving a sentence for
robbery and kidnapping when he first escaped with Rizaj in 2006 in a
helicopter. On Nov 16 Alket Rizaj was arrested with a female
companion at an isolated house near the town of Marathon.
(AP, 2/23/09)(AP, 11/16/09)
2009 Feb 22, Iran's official
news agency says the country's first nuclear power plant will begin
preliminary phase operation on Feb 25 after a series of delays.
(AP, 2/22/09)(SFC, 2/23/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 22, A military
official said Iraqi authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a
Sunni lawmaker accused of masterminding a series of high-profile
attacks, including mortar strikes on the Green Zone and a 2007
suicide bombing inside the parliament building. Lawmaker Mohammed
al-Dayni denied the allegations.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 22, In Mexico gunmen
in Chihuahua city shot at a convoy carrying the governor of
Chihuahua, a violence-wracked border state, killing one of his
bodyguards and wounding two other agents. Police arrested two
suspects March 31 in the northern city of Chihuahua, who then led
them to 2 more suspects.
(AP, 2/24/09)(AP, 4/5/09)
2009 Feb 22, In Pakistan a top
official said the local government the North West Frontier Province
will distribute 30,000 rifles to villagers to help security forces
fight the growing strength of Taliban and al-Qaida militants.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 22, Gunmen in northern
Somalia kidnapped a Pakistani. Al-Shabab insurgents claimed to have
carried out a suicide attack on an African Union peacekeeping base
in Mogadishu. 11 Burundi peacekeepers in Somalia were killed and
another 20 injured in a suicide attack by a Somali contractor who
delivered supplies and had easy access to the base.
(AP, 2/22/09)(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 22, In Turkey Aydin
Dogan (72), chairman of Dogan Sirketler Grubu Holdings AS, a
conglomerate that controls 7 newspapers, 28 magazines and 3 Turkish
television channels as well as energy interests, accused PM Erdogan
of seeking to muzzle criticism. Dogan was recently hit with a
corporate tax bill of around $500 million. Most of the bill centered
on the 2007 sale of a stake in Dogan to Germany’s Axel Springer AG.
Dogan was forced to shrink his empire and dump some critics of pres.
Erdogan before pressure on him ceased.
(WSJ, 2/23/09, p.A9)(Econ, 4/6/13, p.62)
2009 Feb 22, The United Arab
Emirates said it will spend $10 billion to bail out Dubai, whose
huge construction and financial sector expansion plans slowed under
the world wide downturn.
(WSJ, 2/23/09, p.A1)

2010 Feb 22, Pres. Barack Obama
put forward a nearly $1 trillion, 10-year compromise that would
allow the government to deny or roll back egregious insurance
premium increases that infuriated consumers. Obama produced a health
care plan of his own. It used legislation already passed by the
Senate as its starting point, making changes designed to appeal to
House Democrats.
(AP, 2/22/10)(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 22, A Delaware grand
jury returned an indictment on pediatrician Dr. Earl Bradley of
Lewes with 471 counts of sexual crimes against 103 children.
(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 22, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber killed 15 people in Nangarhar province, including a
key tribal leader who played a major role in a failed attempt to
capture al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora in 2001.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, Latin American and
Caribbean nations backed Argentina's claim of sovereignty to the
Falkland Islands in a growing dispute with Britain over plans to
drill for oil off the islands in the Atlantic. British exploration
company Desire Petroleum PLC said it started drilling for oil about
62 miles north of the disputed islands.
(AP, 2/23/10)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 22, In eastern
CongoDRC 3 people were killed when Congolese soldiers attacked a UN
agency car and tried to loot it in South Kivu province. A
combination of military personnel from the US Special Operations
Command Africa, including US special forces and civilian specialists
under contract, were said to be conducting training a battalion of
Congolese soldiers in the city of Kisangani. The 8-month program for
the battalion, which can consist of about 1,000 soldiers, will cover
military basics but also will focus on human rights training. Human
rights groups have previously accused Congo's poorly trained and
irregularly paid army forces of attacking civilians.
(AP, 2/23/10)(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Feb 22, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy met with Total Chairman Thierry Desmarest for talks
about a labor strike that has shuttered over half of France's oil
refining capacity. Workers at all six of Total SA's French
refineries and at six of its 31 fuel depots have been on strike for
five days over the uncertain future of a plant in Dunkirk, in
northern France. Workers at France's fourth-largest refinery,
British-owned chemicals company INEOS, met to vote on whether they
too would join the widening strike.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, German airline
Lufthansa went to court in a bid to halt a strike by some 4,000
pilots that disrupted more than one third of its flights. Later in
the day Lufthansa pilots agreed to suspend for two weeks a strike
that grounded about 900 flights, just as rival British Airways'
cabin crew voted to join the fray to protest harsh cost cuts.
(AP, 2/22/10)(Reuters, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Indonesia a
villager was killed in crossfire and three suspected militants were
arrested when police raided a possible paramilitary training ground
for the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah in Aceh
province.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 22, Iran said it plans
to build two new uranium enrichment facilities deep inside mountains
to protect them from attack, a new challenge to Western powers
trying to curb Tehran's nuclear program for fear it is aimed at
making weapons.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Iraq assailants
killed 8 members of a Shiite family in a village outside Baghdad,
shooting some and beheading others, just one of a series of
pre-election shooting and car bombing attacks that swept the
country, killing at least 23 people.
(AP, 2/22/10)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 22, In Ivory Coast at
least two protesters died during an opposition demonstration that
turned violent, deepening the crisis sparked by the president's
dissolution of the government earlier this month.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Libya Rashid
Hamdani, one of two Swiss businessmen held in Libya for 19 months
amid a diplomatic row between the two states, left for home as Max
Goeldi emerged from his country's embassy to serve 4 months in jail.
Goeldi was released on June 10 and prepared to fly home.
(AFP, 2/22/10)(AFP, 6/11/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Nigeria
Abdullahi Adamu, the former governor of Nasarawa state, was arrested
for allegedly embezzling $100 million of government money meant for
public projects. He was currently serving as secretary to the board
of trustees of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), Nigeria's ruling
political party.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Northern
Ireland a car bomb detonated in Newry, between Dublin and Belfast.
Irish Republican Army dissidents gave police officers just 17
minutes to evacuate the center of a border town before the blast.
The attack on the courthouse was the first of its kind in nearly a
decade.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Pakistan a
suicide bomber targeting security forces killed at least 8 people in
Mingora, the capital of the Swat Valley district.
(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 22, A crowd of
Palestinian youths in Hebron pelted Israeli soldiers with stones and
empty bottles, drawing tear gas and stun grenades in the most
serious violence to rock this volatile West Bank city in months.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Peru 2 buses
crashed head-on along a remote stretch of highway in the northeast,
killing at least 38 people and injuring 58.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Spain Hokman
Joma tried to hit Turkey’s PM Erdogan with a shoe as the Turkish
leader got into a car during a visit to the southern city of
Seville. Hokman shouted "Long live Kurdistan" in Spanish before
being arrested. In June the Syrian Kurd was sentenced to three years
in jail in Spain.
(AP, 9/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, Turkish police
detained more than 40 high-ranking military commanders for allegedly
plotting to overthrow the Islamic-rooted government. The detentions
followed the gathering of wiretap evidence and the discovery of
secret weapons caches, revelations that dealt a blow to the
military's credibility.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, The United Arab
Emirates said it has picked former International Atomic Energy
Agency chief Hans Blix to head an advisory board for its nuclear
power program. Blix was director general of the IAEA, the UN's
nuclear watchdog, from 1981 to 1997. He led the UN search for
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq until June 2003.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, A UN report said
sales of household electrical gadgets will boom across the
developing world in the next decade, wreaking environmental havoc if
there are no new strategies to deal with the discarded TVs, cell
phones and computers.
(AP, 2/22/10)

2011 Feb 22, Rahm Emanuel,
former White House Chief of Staff from Pres. Obama, was elected
mayor of Chicago, overwhelming five rivals.
(SFC, 2/23/11, p.A4)
2011 Feb 22, The US and Israel
carried out a successful test of the Arrow anti-missile system off
the coast of California.
(AP, 2/22/11)
2011 Feb 22, Democratic members
of the Indiana House of Representatives left Indianapolis to deny
Republicans a quorum hoping to kill legislation that included a bill
allowing workers in private-sector unions the right to opt out of
their dues or fees.
(SFC, 2/24/11, p.A7)
2011 Feb 22, Algeria’s
government, in a major concession to opposition groups, adopted a
measure that would lift a 19-year state of emergency.
(SFC, 2/23/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 22, Bahrain's king
ordered the release of some political prisoners, conceding to
another opposition demand as the embattled monarchy tries to engage
protesters in talks aimed at ending an uprising that has entered its
second week.
(AP, 2/22/11)
2011 Feb 22, In northeastern
Brazil police in the city of Pirapemas arrested a man accused of
sexually abusing his daughter for 12 years and fathering her two
children. The man confessed to abusing his daughter starting when
she was 14 years old and fathering two daughters, aged 5 years and 2
months.
(AP, 2/23/11)
2011 Feb 22, Egypt's foreign
ministry told its embassies in the Arab world and Western countries
to seek a freeze on the assets of former President Hosni Mubarak and
his family. Massive labor protests and strikes turned violent, with
the deputy head of one public sector company being beaten to death
by irate workers.
(Reuters, 2/22/11)(AP, 2/22/11)
2011 Feb 22, A French creator
of specialized search engines filed a new complaint with the
European Union about alleged anticompetitive behavior by Google Inc.
(AP, 2/22/11)
2011 Feb 22, German authorities
arrested two Germans suspected of involvement with the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan, a terrorist group suspected of links to
al-Qaida.
(AP, 2/23/11)
2011 Feb 22, An Indian court
convicted 31 people on conspiracy and murder charges over a deadly
train fire in 2002 that triggered anti-Muslim rioting in which 2,000
people were killed.
(AP, 2/22/11)
2011 Feb 22, Two Iranian naval
ships entered Egypt's Suez Canal heading for Syria, the first time
in three decades that Tehran has sent military ships through the
strategic waterway.
(AP, 2/22/11)
2011 Feb 22, In the Ivory Coast
a battle between forces for the country's two political rivals
involving rocket-propelled grenades left at least 10 policemen and 2
civilians dead. This was the fourth consecutive day of violence in
Abidjan, the commercial capital of Ivory Coast. The "invisible
commandos" allied with Ouattara launched their own attack. They
claimed in a statement overnight that they killed 27 police officers
in an ambush in Abobo.
(AP, 2/23/11)(AP, 2/24/11)
2011 Feb 22, Libya's Muammar
Gaddafi used tanks, helicopters and warplanes to fight a growing
revolt, as the veteran leader scoffed at reports he was fleeing
after four decades in power. Human Rights Watch said at least 233
people have been killed and opposition groups put the figure much
higher. Libya's ambassador to the United States openly called for
Moamer Kadhafi to end his "dictatorship regime" and step down,
following other envoys deploring a deadly crackdown in the North
African nation.
(Reuters, 2/22/11)(AFP, 2/22/11)
2011 Feb 22, Mexico’s
government announced that it plans to include voice and DNA samples
in a database of the nation's 620,000 police and public safety
employees as a control measure. Police in Acapulco, where the
Mexican Open tennis tournament is being held, found the bodies of
seven men, some mutilated. In Mazatlan two men were shot to death in
the parking lot of a hotel frequented by foreign tourists. Neither
of the victims were tourists. Authorities in Acapulco found the
bodies of two men and a woman in a stolen taxi.
(AP, 2/22/11)(AP, 2/23/11)
2011 Feb 22, Christchurch, New
Zealand, lay in ruins after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake toppled tall
buildings and churches. The earthquake left at least 166 dead,
including 21 Chinese students. The earthquake also caused some 30
million tons of ice to break off from New Zealand's biggest glacier.
On Feb 3 rescuers officially gave up hope of finding more
survivors. On May 16 nine final victims of the earthquake were
declared dead, ending an agonizing wait for families of people whose
remains have never been identified in the wreckage. 3 Israelis died
in the Christchurch quake that killed 181 people. Other Israelis
escaped the quake. One of the Israelis who died was carrying at
least five passports. A 2012 report said a six-story building that
collapsed and killed 115 people in the earthquake was made of weak
columns and concrete and did not meet standards when it was built in
1986.
(AFP, 2/23/11)(AFP, 2/25/11)(AP, 3/4/11)(AP,
3/5/11)(AP, 5/16/11)(AP, 7/19/11)(AP, 2/9/12)
2011 Feb 22, In central Nigeria
at least 12 people were killed after cattle thieves attacked the
village of Bere Reti Fan, a region beset by religious and ethnic
killings.
(AP, 2/22/11)
2011 Feb 22, Ion Hobana (80),
Romania's best-known science fiction writer, died in Bucharest. His
works were translated abroad has died. His last book, a history of
French science fiction before 1900, was published in November.
(AP, 2/23/11)
2011 Feb 22, Serb nationalist
Vojislav Seselj deliberately revealed the names of 11 witnesses
whose identities were being shielded by the Yugoslav war crimes
tribunal at the start of his contempt of court trial. Seselj has
been in custody at the tribunal for eight years since turning
himself in to face charges of plotting ethnic cleansing and inciting
atrocities by Serb forces in Bosnia and Croatia as the former
Yugoslavia crumbled in the 1990s.
(AP, 2/22/11)
2011 Feb 22, In Venezuela
protesting students ended a three-week hunger strike, saying they
stopped because the Organization of American States is discussing
their allegations of human rights abuses by Venezuela's government.
(AP, 2/22/11)
2011 Feb 22, In eastern Yemen
about 5,000 anti-government protesters rallied in the town of
al-Shiher, calling for the ouster of the country's president.
Thousands rallied at a university campus in Sanaa while hundreds
continued to camp out in a nearby square. Yemen President Ali
Abdullah Saleh's supporters armed with daggers and batons clashed
violently with students in Sanaa before police intervened. One
person was killed and at least 12 injured in the clashes near Sanaa
University, medics said. A local human rights group gave a higher
toll, saying two people were killed and 18 hurt.
(AP, 2/22/11)(AFP, 2/22/11)(AP, 2/23/11)

2012 Feb 22, Pres. Obama and
others took part in the formal groundbreaking for the National
Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall,
scheduled to open in 2015.
(SFC, 2/23/12, p.A9)
2012 Feb 22, Boston College
student Franco Garcia was last seen drinking with friends at a bar
near campus. On April 11 his body was pulled from the water of a
reservoir near campus.
(SFC, 4/12/12, p.A6)
2012 Feb 22, The top US special
operations commander for Africa said US troops helping in the
fight against a brutal rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army
are now deployed in four Central African countries: Uganda, Congo,
South Sudan and Central African Republic.
(AP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 22, Abkhazia Pres.
Alexander Ankvab survived an assassination attempt. At least one
bodyguard was killed and 2 wounded.
(SFC, 2/23/12, p.A6)
2012 Feb 22, The Afghan
Interior Ministry said seven people have been killed in clashes
between Afghan security forces and protesters demonstrating against
the burning of Muslim holy books at a NATO military base.
(AP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, Anti-whaling
campaigners Sea Shepherd attacked a Japanese whaling ship in the
Antarctic Ocean by firing paint bombs at it and trying to jam its
propeller with ropes.
(AP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 22, In Argentina a
packed train slammed into the end of the line in Buenos Aires' busy
Once station, killing 51 people and injuring hundreds of morning
commuters.
(AP, 2/22/12)(AP, 2/23/12)(AP, 2/24/12)
2012 Feb 22, Australia's
foreign minister Kevin Rudd resigned, saying he was unable to
continue without PM Julia Gillard's support, paving the way for him
to make a leadership challenge.
(AFP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, Mining giant Rio
Tinto said it has unearthed a "remarkable" 12.76 carat pink diamond
in Australia, the largest of the rare and precious stones ever found
in the resources-rich nation.
(AFP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, Occupy London
protesters braced for eviction after a court ruled that local
authorities can remove their four-month-old camp from outside St.
Paul's Cathedral.
(AP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, The charity Cancer
Research UK said some 157,000 children aged 11 to 15 start smoking
every year in England, while almost one million -- or 27 percent of
the total -- have tried smoking at least once.
(AFP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, China allegedly
used force to threaten 11 Vietnamese fishermen preventing them from
entering the Paracel islands to avoid a storm. A Vietnamese report
on Feb 29 said Chinese forces assaulted the fishermen and tried to
take their property.
(AP, 3/1/12)
2012 Feb 22, Researchers in
northeast India released a report on the discovery of a new
family of legless amphibians, named Chikilidae, in a rare scientific
breakthrough.
(AFP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, Indonesian police
and military forces opened fire at the Kerobokan prison on Bali
island after a second night of riots. The violence was triggered by
the stabbing of an inmate during a brawl a week ago. By night
inmates had chased away all 13 guards and seized full control of the
compound.
(AFP, 2/22/12)(AP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 22, Iraq's Interior
Ministry announced the capture of Waleed Khalid Ali, accused as a
top leader of the Ansar al-Sunna insurgent group linked to al-Qaida.
The remains of US Staff Sgt. Ahmed al-Taie were turned over to Iraqi
authorities. He had been abducted on October 23, 2006, during a
visit to his wife and family on a Muslim holiday. He was killed
within a year.
(AP, 2/23/12)(AP, 2/27/12)
2012 Feb 22, Israel gave
preliminary approval to a plan to build 600 new homes in a
settlement deep inside the West Bank, a move that drew rebukes from
the United Nations and Palestinians.
(AP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, In Kashmir at
least 16 Indian soldiers on duty in the mountains were killed and
three others were missing in massive avalanches.
(AFP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 22, A Libyan military
court declared itself incompetent in the first trial of alleged
loyalists of the toppled regime of Moamer Kadhafi.
(AFP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, In Mali a girl was
killed and several others wounded when the government’s army bombed
a refugee camp in the country's north, an area gripped by a Tuareg
rebellion.
(AFP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 22, In Mexico 3
inmates were killed at the Topo Chico prison, a few miles away at
from the Apodaca prison, where 44 prisoners, who belonged to the
Gulf drug cartel, were bludgeoned and stabbed to death on Feb 19 by
inmates from the rival Zetas cartel. Gunmen opened fire on a group
of taxi drivers waiting at a taxi stand outside a shopping center in
Monterrey, killing five.
(AP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 22, In Montenegro US
Army Black Hawk helicopters began dropping food, medicine and
livestock feed to people stranded in the central mountains as
villagers were hit by the country’s heaviest snowfall in 60 years.
(SSFC, 2/26/12, p.A4)
2012 Feb 22, In Myanmar
thousands came to the diamond-studded Shwedagon Pagoda for the
return of an annual festival that was banned for more than 20 years
by the former military regime. This marked what is being billed as
the 2,600-year anniversary of the temple, which according to legend
houses eight strands of Buddha's hair. A group of 12 monks are to
take turns chanting nonstop until the full moon on March 7, when the
celebrations end.
(AP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, Nepal was reported
to be in the midst of an energy crises. The nation produced a paltry
688 megawatts a year and imported petroleum products worth 80
billion rupees ($1 billion) a year.
(AFP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, Nigeria said it
has renewed oil licenses which will let US energy giant ExxonMobil
operate 3 big fields that produce about 500,000 barrels of crude a
day for 20 years.
(AFP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 22, In Nigeria gunmen
on a motorcycle shot dead 2 policemen watching over a highway in
Lapai, Niger state.
(AFP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 22, A Pakistani
government official said 17 health workers have been fired for
allegedly participating in a CIA scheme to confirm the presence of
Osama bin Laden in a northwestern town.
(AP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, Russia expressed
"serious concern" about the humanitarian situation in Syria and said
it backed an International Committee of the Red Cross call for a
daily two-hour truce that could provide help to civilians.
(AFP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, In Somalia
truckloads of Ethiopian and Somali troops captured the strategic
city of Baidoa from Al-Qaeda allied Shebab insurgents, who vowed to
avenge their loss. The blow to the insurgency coincided with the UN
Security Council boosting the strength of an African force in
Mogadishu by more than 5,000 troops and came on the eve of
conference in London aimed at reviving peace efforts.
(AFP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, South Sudan said
it has expelled the Chinese head of the country's largest oil firm
Petrodar, a China-Malaysia-owned company, on charges of colluding
with former civil war foe Sudan to "steal" millions of barrels of
its oil.
(AFP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, The Sudan
Liberation Army faction of Minni Minawi attacked a government
position at Alawna, south of the North Darfur state capital of El
Fasher. Rebels later claimed that a dozen government soldiers were
killed. An official said 10 civilians were the victims.
(AFP, 2/24/12)
2012 Feb 22, Sudan's Al Tayar
newspaper editor said the country’s intelligence agency has
suspended publication of the paper, which tried to report
allegations the agency spied on an opposition political party.
(AFP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, In Syria veteran
American war correspondent Marie Colvin (57) of Britain's Sunday
Times and freelance French photojournalist Remi Ochlik (28) were
killed while fleeing a bombardment in the besieged rebel city of
Homs. Freelance photographer Paul Conroy and journalist Edith
Bouvier of Le Figaro were wounded. 24 others were also killed in
Homs. Syrian citizen journalist Rami al-Sayyed, who provided live
footage on the Internet from Baba Amr, was also killed. In 2016
documents filed in US district court in Washington said the Syrian
military intercepted Colvin's communications and unleashed a barrage
of rocket fire on her in Homs.
(AP, 2/22/12)(AFP, 2/23/12)(AFP, 7/10/16)
2012 Feb 22, Tunisia's court of
cassation threw out a ruling banning pornographic websites.
(AFP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, The UN nuclear
agency acknowledged renewed failure after a trip to probe suspicions
of covert Iranian nuclear weapons work. Their statement was issued
just hours after an Iranian general warned of a pre-emptive strike
against any foe threatening the country.
(AP, 2/22/12)
2012 Feb 22, Zambia opposition
lawmakers walked out of parliament, saying President Michael Sata
and his government had been violating the constitution.
(AFP, 2/22/12)

2013 Feb 22, Pres. Obama said
that about 100 US troops have been sent to Niger to help set up a
new base for Predator aircraft surveillance.
(SFC, 2/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 22, US federal and
Washington state officials said six underground tanks at Hanford,
that hold a brew of radioactive and toxic waste at the nation's most
contaminated nuclear site, are leaking.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, A major winter
storm headed northeast into the US Great Lakes and threatened New
England after blanketing states from Minnesota to Ohio with blinding
snow, sleet and freezing rain. At least 4 deaths were linked to the
storm.
(Reuters, 2/22/13)(SFC, 2/23/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 22, In Oklahoma City a
medical helicopter crashed outside a nursing home killing 2 people
onboard and injuring a third.
(SFC, 2/23/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 22, American
scientists prepared to drop dead mice laced with painkillers on
Guam's jungle canopy as a prescription for the brown tree snake, a
headache that has caused Guam misery for more than 60 years.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, In Bahrain a
protester (20) died from a head injury sustained Feb. 14 when he was
hit with a tear gas canister fired by security forces.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Police across
Bangladesh clashed with protesters from Islamic political parties
denouncing war crimes trials linked to the country's 1971
independence war, killing two demonstrators and injuring dozens.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, In Benin
businessman Johannes Dagnon and army commander Pamphile Zomahoun
were arrested. Preliminary investigations showed the two had tried
to stop President Boni Yayi from returning to Cotonou so they could
institute a military state.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Feb 22, Britain suffered
its first ever sovereign ratings downgrade from a major agency when
Moody's stripped the country of its coveted top-notch triple-A
rating, dealing a major blow to Chancellor George Osborne.
(Reuters, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, BP tanker drivers
have begun a 3-day strike at Petroineos's Grangemouth refinery in
Scotland over a plan to transfer some of them to another employer,
which would affect their pensions and pay.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Frozen food maker
Birds Eye said it would withdraw some products in Britain and
Ireland after it found traces of horse DNA in one of its ready meals
sold in Belgium.
(Reuters, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Czech PM Petr
Necas signed deals with representatives of 16 religious groups to
pay them $3.1 billion in compensation for property that the
country's former Communist regime seized from them. The left-wing
opposition has asked the country's highest legal authority, the
Constitutional Court, to stop it.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Voters in the tiny
East African nation of Djibouti cast ballots in the nation's
parliamentary elections. Opposition political parties were eligible
to win seats for the first time.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, French catering
and vouchers group Sodexo said it was withdrawing all frozen beef
products from the market in Britain after finding horse meat in some
of its products.
(Reuters, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, German authorities
returned 7 artifacts dating as far back as 4,000 BC to Kosovo after
police stumbled on them in an unrelated raid in 2005. The artifacts
date to the Neolithic period and are believed to belong to the
Vinca, a prehistoric culture that traces back to 5,500 BC in
southern Europe.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, In Greece heavy
rainfall caused two rivers to break their banks flooding the streets
of Athens.
(SFC, 2/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 22, In Iraq gunmen
wearing military uniforms killed seven anti-al-Qaida militiamen in
an attack in Tuz Khormato north of Baghdad.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Ireland’s
government said B&F Meats in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary,
has been caught labeling horse meat as beef and shipping it to a
company in the Czech Rep.
(SFC, 2/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 22, In northern Mali
Chadian army troops killed 65 Islamic extremist rebels and destroyed
five vehicles in fierce fighting. 13 Chadian soldiers were killed in
the fighting.
(AP, 2/23/13)
2013 Feb 22, Pakistani
authorities arrested Malik Ishaq, a founder of a banned Sunni
extremist group in Rahim Yar Khan, less than a week after the
organization claimed responsibility for a market bombing that killed
89 Shiites. Ishaq was imprisoned for 14 years on charges, never
proven, of killing Shiite Muslims. He was released in July 2011.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Hundreds of
Palestinians in Hebron and elsewhere in the West Bank threw rocks at
Israeli soldiers who responded with tear gas. Palestinian emergency
services said dozens were treated for tear gas inhalation and rubber
bullet wounds. Mohammed Asfour (22) was struck in the head by a
rubber-coated bullet in the West Bank and died of his wounds on
March 7.
(AP, 2/22/13)(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Feb 22, In Romania
gangster Ian Balint was arrested with dozens of others on charges of
attempted murder, kidnapping, blackmail and possession of illegal
weapons.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 22, Syrian warplanes
and artillery hit targets near Damascus International Airport.
Regime forces fired three missiles into a rebel-held area in eastern
Aleppo, hitting several buildings. A newly released detainee
reported witnessing the death of imprisoned rights activist Ayham
Ghazzoul (26). Activists said gunmen from rival Sunni and Shiite
Muslim villages in northern Syria have freed more than 200 people
snatched in tit-for-tat kidnappings this month, easing tensions that
threatened to touch off more sectarian violence. On Feb 26 Human
Rights Watch said at least 141 people, half of them children, were
killed when the Syrian military fired at least four missiles into
eastern Aleppo.
(AP, 2/22/13)(AP, 2/23/13)(AP, 2/24/13)(AP,
2/26/13)
2013 Feb 22, Tunisia's ruling
Islamist party named Ali Larayedh, the interior minister seen as a
conservative loyalist, to form a new government.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Pope Benedict XVI,
who steps down Feb. 28, named Monsignor Ettore Balestrero
ambassador, or nunzio, to Colombia. Balestrero was head of the Holy
See's delegation to the Council of Europe's Moneyval committee,
which evaluated the Vatican's anti-money laundering and anti-terror
financing measures.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Zimbabwe media
freedom campaigners said police are breaking the law by seizing and
banning small radio receivers that can tune in to stations not
linked to the state broadcasting monopoly controlled by President
Robert Mugabe's party.
(AP, 2/22/13)

2014 Feb 22, A barge ran into a
towboat on the Mississippi River near Vancherie, La. A 65-mile
stretch of the river was closed to traffic for a day as crews
cleaned up some 31,500 gallons of spilled oil.
(SFC, 2/24/14, p.A5)(SFC, 2/25/14, p.A5)
2014 Feb 22, Afghan President
Karzai's High Peace Council said it has held meetings with a
breakaway faction of senior Taliban leaders in Dubai. The Taliban
has denied links to the faction, organized by former Taliban finance
minister Aga Jan Mohtism.
(AP, 2/22/14)
2014 Feb 22, In Brazil 9
members of a gang that specialized in blowing up teller machines
were killed in a shootout with police after some 80 officers
confronted 15 armed men after they used dynamite to blow up a cash
machine in Itamonte, Minas Gerais state.
(SSFC, 2/23/14, p.A4)
2014 Feb 22, In Central African
Republic 3 Muslim civilians were shot dead when the taxi carrying
them was stopped by an angry mob in Bangui.
(AFP, 2/22/14)
2014 Feb 22, An Egyptian court
acquitted six police officers on charges of killing 83 protesters
during the country's 2011 revolution, the latest in a string of
trials that rights group say failed to hold the country's security
forces accountable for demonstrators' deaths.
(AP, 2/22/14)
2014 Feb 22, Iran some 100
French corporate bigwigs held business talks in Tehran. American
business representatives were also in town.
(Econ, 2/22/14, p.39)
2014 Feb 22, Iraq's defense
ministry announced a 72-hour halt to military operations in
Fallujah, which has been held by anti-government fighters for weeks.
The announcement raised the possibility of negotiations to end the
crisis, during which gunmen have also seized parts of Ramadi. 4
military officers and five soldiers were killed as bombs targeted an
army patrol in al-Saadiyah. In Tikrit blasts near the homes of local
security and civilian officials killed five people and wounded 18. A
military helicopter crashed in a remote area west of Baghdad,
killing its four-member crew.
(AFP, 2/22/14)(AP, 2/22/14)(AP, 2/23/14)
2014 Feb 22, Italy swore in a
new coalition government under Matteo Renzi (39). His Democratic
Party was propped up by supporters of former premier Mario Monti and
former loyalists of Silvio Berlusconi.
(SFC, 2/22/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 22, In Lebanon a
suicide bombing against soldiers killed at least 3 people in Hermel.
The Nusra Front, an al-Qaida-linked group, soon claimed
responsibility.
(AP, 2/23/14)
2014 Feb 22, Libyan police
arrested six Qataris at Benghazi airport as they tried to board a
plane to Turkey using forged Libyan passports and carrying almost
$146,000.
(Reuters, 2/22/14)
2014 Feb 22, Mexican marines in
Mazatlan arrested Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquin Guzman (56). His
dominance of the drugs trade and ability to elude the law since
escaping from prison in 2001 had lent him almost mythical status.
(Reuters, 2/23/14)(SSFC, 2/23/14, p.A3)
2014 Feb 22, In Pakistan 9
militants were killed in helicopter gunship attacks targeting
insurgent hideouts in the Hangu region.
(Reuters, 2/22/14)
2014 Feb 22, The World Health
Organization began a campaign to prevent outbreaks of cholera in
temporary camps in South Sudan housing thousands of people who have
fled the country's two-month-old conflict.
(AFP, 2/22/14)
2014 Feb 22, Syrian state TV
said government forces have captured two rebel-held areas on the
edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. In the northeast Kurdish
members of the “People's Protection Units" captured Tel Brak in a
battle left some 19 people dead.
(AP, 2/22/14)
2014 Feb 22, In Syria Akram
al-Bunni, a prominent leftist writer and former political prisoner,
was abducted by government intelligence agents as he left a wedding
reception at a Damascus hotel.
(Reuters, 2/23/14)
2014 Feb 22, In Thailand a
5-year-old girl was killed and about three dozen people wounded in
an attack on an anti-government rally in the eastern province of
Trat.
(AP, 2/23/14)
2014 Feb 22, Turkey's interior
ministry said 1,000 police officers have been removed in the wake of
a major corruption probe against key government allies but said
these were only "routine" re-assignments.
(AFP, 2/22/14)
2014 Feb 22, In Ukraine
protesters took control of Kiev, seizing the president's office as
parliament voted to oust him and form a new government. President
Viktor Yanukovych described the events as a coup and insisted he
would not step down. Parliament voted to call early presidential
elections for May 25. Leaders of mainly Russian-speaking regions of
eastern Ukraine that are loyal to the president challenged the
legitimacy of the national parliament and said they were taking
control of their territories.
(AP, 2/22/14)(Reuters, 2/22/14)
2014 Feb 22, The heads of four
Ukrainian security bodies, including the police's Berkut anti-riot
units, appeared in parliament and declared they would not take part
in any conflict with the people. Yulia Tymoshenko left imprisonment
and spoke to a massive, adoring crowd, while President Viktor
Yanukovych decamped to eastern Ukraine and vowed he would remain in
power.
(Reuters, 2/22/14)(AP, 2/23/14)
2014 Feb 22, Vatican Pope
Francis appointed his first batch of cardinals, as his predecessor
Benedict made a surprise rare appearance at the ceremony.
(AFP, 2/22/14)
2014 Feb 22, In Venezuela tens
of thousands of opponents of Pres. Maduro filled the streets of
Caracas in their biggest rally to date.
(SSFC, 2/23/14, p.A9)

2015 Feb 22, The 87th Academy
Awards Ceremony was held in Los Angeles. The Best Picture Oscar went
to “Birdman"; Eddie Redmayne won the best actor award for “The
Theory of Everything" and Julianne Moore won the best actress award
for “Still Alice." Musicians Common and John Legend collected the
Academy Award for best original song for "Glory", their politically
aware theme from "Selma." Birdman, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez
Inarritu of Mexico, won four Oscars.
(AP, 2/23/15)(AFP, 2/23/15)(SFC, 2/23/15,
p.E1)(Econ., 2/28/15, p.77)
2015 Feb 22, In the 87th
Academy Awards Poland won its first ever foreign language movie
Oscar for "Ida."
(SFC, 2/23/15, p.E1)
2015 Feb 22, Bangladesh
officials said special forces have raided a training camp in the
southeastern Chittagong district operated by an Islamist militant
network that was planning to carry out attacks in the country.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Bangladesh a
river ferry carrying up to 140 passengers capsized after being hit
by a cargo vessel, killing at least 70 people.
(AP, 2/22/15)(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 22, Hungary's ruling
right-wing alliance lost its two-thirds majority in parliament after
the opposition won a by-election, hampering PM Viktor Orban's
chances of changing the constitution and passing major legislation.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Iraq multiple
bombings, including a suicide truck bomb attack on Shiite
militiamen, killed 12 people, as police found four bodies with
gunshots wounds in Baghdad.
(AP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Iraq The
Islamic State jihadist group released a new video purporting to show
captured Kurdish peshmerga fighters paraded through Iraqi streets in
cages. Kurdish sources said it was filmed a week earlier in the main
market of Hawija, an IS-held town some 50 km from Kirkuk.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, Israel’s PM
Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran is seeking to open a "third front"
against Israel using Hezbollah fighters on the Syrian Golan Heights.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, Israel said it
will purchase 14 additional next-generation F-35 fighter jets for
approximately $3 billion.
(AP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, Japan’s Tokyo
Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said sensors at the Fukushima nuclear
plant have detected a fresh leak of highly radioactive water to the
sea. The firm said it has shut the gutter to prevent radioactive
water from going into the Pacific Ocean.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Kuwait an
appeals court sentenced Musallam al-Barrack, a leading former
opposition lawmaker, to two years in prison instead of five after he
was found guilty of insulting the country's ruler during a rally in
2012.
(AP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, Libya's
internationally recognized government said it will end all contracts
with companies from Turkey, a country it has accused of supporting a
rival administration.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 22, Libya resumed oil
exports from the eastern port of Zueitina after an almost year-long
suspension and is also testing a pipeline to restart exports from
Hariga port. Zueitina is under the control of troops loyal to the
internationally recognized Libyan government.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Libya militants
claiming loyalty to Islamic State executed twin bomb attacks on the
residence of the Iranian ambassador in Tripoli.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, Maldives’ police
arrested former president Mohamed Nasheed after a court said he
might flee the country to avoid hearings on terrorism charges,
leading to clashes between his supporters and authorities.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In northeastern
Nigeria a girl suicide bomber, who appeared no more than 10 years
old, blew herself up and killed 4 others in an attack on a market in
Potiskum.
(AFP, 2/22/15)(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 22, South Africa's
Harmony Gold said about 200 miners had not been located after an
underground fire started at its Kusasalethu mine during maintenance.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, A Syrian man was
shown beheaded in a video posted to Facebook. Malaysian authorities
later Mohd Faris Anuar (20) and Muhamad Wanndy Muhammad Jedi (25) of
Malaysia as the men involved in the beheading by the Islamic State.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Feb 22, Almost 600 Turkish
troops pushed deep into Syria evacuating Turkish soldiers guarding a
historic tomb who had been stranded in territory controlled by
Islamic State jihadists. They brought back the tomb containing the
remains of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the Ottoman empire's
founder, Osman I.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In eastern Ukraine
pro-Moscow rebels said they would start to withdraw heavy weapons
from the front line. The Kiev government said armored columns had
crossed the border from Russia to reinforce the separatists. In
Kharkiv 2 people were killed and 10 wounded when an explosive device
was thrown from a car into a crowd attending a peace rally.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 22, Yemen's president
sought to resume his duties as head of state as he convened
governors of several southern provinces and military commanders at
the presidential retreat in the economic hub of Aden.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)

2016 Feb 22, President Barack
Obama sent lawmakers an official $1.9 billion request to combat the
spread of the Zika virus in Latin America and the US.
(AP, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, Afghan officials
siad government forces have pulled out of a second district in
Helmand, leaving the Taliban in control of most of the northern part
of the province after troops withdrew from Musa Qala district last
week.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, The Australian
government said it plans to start a register of foreign ownership of
water rights, redoubling its efforts to appease voters concerned
about the amount of farming assets being sold offshore.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, A Bangladesh
official said police have seized at least 20 bombs and bomb-making
materials and arrested two suspected members of a banned radical
Islamist group in a series of weekend raids.
(AP, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, Brazilian police
launched a new round of arrests and seizures targeting both the
manager of President Dilma Rousseff's successful election campaigns
and the country's largest engineering group in the latest stage of
nation's worst corruption probe.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, In Burundi one
person had died and another was wounded in a grenade attack at a
Bujumbura market just hours before the arrival of UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who is trying to end the bloodshed
over President Pierre Nkurunziza's disputed re-election.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, Congo DRC’s
interior ministry said the Democratic Republic of Congo will allow
some 150 children adopted by foreign parents, mostly Americans, to
leave the country after spending more than two years in legal limbo.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, Cuban President
Raul Castro announced that he is dispatching 9,000 soldiers to help
keep the Zika virus out of Cuba, calling on the entire country to
fight the mosquito that carries the disease.
(AP, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, In the Dominican
Rep. the body of freelance writer Sarah Kershaw (49), a US citizen
who worked for more than a decade as a reporter for The New York
Times, was found at her apartment in Sosua.
(AP, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 22, Greece filed a
formal protest with Austria over its decision to call a meeting of
Balkan states on the migrant crisis without including Greece.
(Reuters, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 22, In Honduras an
international mission aimed at tackling widespread corruption was
installed, kicking off a four-year mandate that its backers hope
will clean up corruption and lead to profound changes. The
Organization of American States established an ambitious new
corruption-fighting commission.
(AP, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, Rural Indian
protesters paralyzed northern Haryana state despite a deal giving
them more government jobs, but there was relief for New Delhi's 20
million residents as the army retook control of their main water
source. Days of riots killed at least 28 people.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)(AFP, 2/22/16)(Econ, 2/27/15,
p.29)
2016 Feb 22, Indian security
forces battled for a third day amid heavy gunfire to clear militants
who stormed a government building in the disputed Kashmir region and
killed six people.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, Kazakhstan's
anti-corruption agency said it is investigating the head of the
journalists' union Seitkazy Matayev over suspected theft and tax
evasion, less than a month before a parliamentary election.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, Nicaragua said it
has released more than 8,000 convicts on parole and sent 94
foreigners to finish sentences in their home countries since 2014,
easing overcrowding in prisons.
(AFP, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, Nigeria's
anti-graft agency arrested former interior minister Abba Moro, under
then-president Goodluck Jonathan, over the death of at least 20
people in a stampede tragedy on March 15, 2014.
(AFP, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 22, Peru’s oil
operator Petroperu said said ruptures in the main oil pipeline in
late January and early February have spilled 3,000 barrels of crude
in an Amazonian region, and the oil has polluted two rivers native
villages rely on for water.
(Reuters, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 22, A Polish state
archive has released documents which allegedly show that democracy
leader and former president Lech Walesa collaborated with the
communist secret police in the 1970s, before he took leadership of a
movement that eventually helped topple communism.
(AP, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, It was reported
that Portugal's socialist premier Antonio Costa last week sent
letters to Austria, Greece, Italy and Sweden -- countries that have
seen refugees arrive in large numbers -- offering to welcome up to
5,800 more refugees in addition to the 4,500 they already agreed to
take as part of the EU's refugee quota system.
(AFP, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, A South Korean
newspaper reported that Chinese banks including a branch of China's
biggest bank Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have
frozen accounts belonging to North Koreans.
(Reuters, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, In Spain transport
workers in Barcelona staged the first of four days of strikes,
increasing road traffic problems in the northeastern city as the
four-day Mobile World Congress gets underway.
(AP, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, In Syria the
Islamic State group and other jihadists cut a vital supply route
linking the west of Syria's second city Aleppo with other
government-held territory.
(AFP, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, Syria's main
opposition umbrella group was meeting in the Saudi capital as
Washington and Moscow worked to secure a ceasefire..
(AFP, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, A Christian
official in northeastern Syria said the Islamic State group has
released the last group of Assyrian Christians taken hostage last
year. The 43 freed Christians were part of about 230 Assyrian
Christians captured last February by the extremists after othey
overran Assyrian communities on the southern bank of the Khabur
River in northeastern Hassakeh province.
(AP, 2/22/16)
2016 Feb 22, In central Tunisia
a suspected jihadist was killed in an exchange of fire with security
forces in in the Mount Mghila area.
(AFP, 2/23/16)
2016 Feb 22, Uganda's main
opposition leader was held by officers at a police station outside
the capital after being taken from his home where he had been under
house arrest. Kizza Besigye has rejected the results of the Feb 18
election won by veteran President Yoweri Museveni, and called on his
supporters to join a protest march to the Electoral Commission
headquarters in Kampala.
(AFP, 2/22/16)
2016 Jun 22, Zambia’s tax
authorities shut down the Post, the country’s biggest independent
media organization. A week later editor Fred M’Membe was arrested
and beaten.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.39)

2017 Feb 22, The US Supreme
Court sided with California-based Life Technologies Corp. in a
patent infringement case that limits the international reach of US
patent laws. The justices ruled unanimously that the company's
shipment of a single part of a patented invention for assembly in
another country did not violate patent laws.
(AP, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 22, More than 6,000
e-mails were made public that showed close ties between Scott
Pruitt, the new administrator of the EPA, with major oil and gas
producers, electric utilities and political groups tied to the Koch
brothers and their efforts to roll back environmental regulations
during Pruitt’s tenure as attorney general of Oklahoma.
(SFC, 2/23/17, p.A4)
2017 Feb 22, In Kansas a
racially motivated shooting at a crowded suburban Kansas City bar
left one Indian man dead and two other men hospitalized. Adam
Purinton (51) used "racial slurs" before he opened fire as patrons
of Austins Bar and Grill watched the University of Kansas-TCU
basketball game on television. Ian Grillot (24) ran at the gunman to
stop him from fleeing and was shot in the hand and chest. On June 9
a federal grand jury indicted Purinton on hate crime charges.
(AP, 2/24/17)(SFC, 3/29/17, p.A4)(SSFC, 6/11/17,
p.A11)
2017 Feb 22, In North Dakota
opponents of the Dakota Access pipeline burned structures in their
camp near Cannon Ball as part of a leaving ceremony ahead of a
government deadline to get off of federal property.
(SFC, 2/23/17, p.A4)
2017 Feb 22, A navigation error
forced SpaceX to delay its shipment to the International Space
Station (ISS), following an otherwise smooth flight from NASA's
historic moon pad. The delivery was completed the next day.
(AP, 2/22/17)(SFC, 2/24/17, p.A12)
2017 Feb 22, Amnesty Int’l.
released a 408-page annual report of rights abuses and named US
Pres. Donald Trump, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, Turkish Pres. Recep
Tayyip Erdogan and Philippines Pres. Rodrigo Duterte among leaders
“wielding a toxic agenda" that dehumanizes entire groups of people.
(SFC, 2/23/17, p.A3)
2017 Feb 22, The British
government announced that Cressida Dick (56) is to be commissioner
of the Metropolitan Police, making her the first woman to serve as
Britain's most senior police officer.
(AFP, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 22, Ian Stewart, the
partner of British children's author Helen Bailey, was convicted of
killing her and dumping her body in a cesspool in a financially
motivated murder. The body of Bailey (51) was found last July in a
cesspool under the garage of the home she shared with Stewart. The
next day Stewart was sentenced to at least 34 years in prison.
(AP, 2/22/17)(AP, 2/23/17)
2017 Feb 22, A British national
was arrested at a London airport on suspicion of staging a
cyber-attack on Deutsche Telekom last November that knocked around a
million German households offline.
(AFP, 2/23/17)
2017 Feb 22, China announced
plans to have 50,000 football academies by 2025 as part of an
ambitious blueprint to grow into a soccer superpower.
(AP, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 22, The government of
CongoDRC said that it was opening an investigation after video this
month showed soldiers massacring civilians in central Kasai
province.
(SFC, 2/23/17, p.A2)
2017 Feb 22, In Egypt militants
killed a Coptic Christian man and burned his son alive, then dumped
their bodies on a roadside in el-Arish. Three other Christians in
Sinai were killed earlier, either in drive-by shootings or with
militants storming their homes and shops.
(AP, 2/24/17)
2017 Feb 22, France and Germany
won backing from the European Union's executive for proposals to
tighten security across Europe, which include giving more powers to
governments to monitor frontiers with other EU states.
(Reuters, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 22, Haiti’s President
Jovenel Moise and two legislative leaders agreed upon the nomination
of Dr. Jack Guy Lafontant as prime minister.
(AP, 2/23/17)
2017 Feb 22, Iraq's
government-sanctioned paramilitary forces, made up mainly of Shiite
militiamen, launched a new push to capture villages west of the city
of Mosul from Islamic State militants.
(AP, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 22, In Niger at least
15 soldiers were killed in an attack by Islamic extremists near the
village of Interzawane close to the border with Mali.
(SFC, 2/24/17, p.A2)
2017 Feb 22, In northeastern
Nigeria at least seven soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram attack
on military positions in the town of Gajiram.
(AFP, 2/24/17)
2017 Feb 22, Pakistan said it
will send paramilitary forces to crack down on Islamic militants in
the Punjab province, a move that the ruling party of PM Nawaz Sharif
had long rejected because of opposition among its Islamist
supporters.
(AP, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 22, In Puerto Rico
thousands of public university students went on strike to protest
looming budget cuts amid a deep economic crisis.
(AP, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 22, Federal officials
in Puerto Rico indicted three doctors and the owner of a medical
equipment company in a $1.3 million Medicare fraud scheme.
(AP, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 22, Russia's highest
court overturned the conviction of Ildar Dadin, a jailed opposition
activist, and ordered him released more than a year after he was
sent to prison. In December 2015 became the first person to be
convicted of breaking a new law against protesters.
(AP, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 22, Russia
successfully launched a cargo ship to the International Space
Station (ISS) from Kazakhstan.
(AP, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 22, Somalia's new
Pres. Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed was inaugurated, promising his
people that the era of al Shabaab and other Islamist militant groups
was over. He called on al Shabaab's thousands of fighters to
surrender, promising them "a good life" if they did.
(Reuters, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 22, A South African
court ruled that the government's decision to withdraw from the
International Criminal Court (ICC) without parliament's approval was
unconstitutional.
(AP, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 22, The Syrian army
and its allies took a small district on the outskirts of Aleppo from
rebels.
(Reuters, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 22, Turkey’s defense
ministry officials said they will allow female soldiers to wear a
headscarf with their uniforms, marking a symbolic shift for a
military that has traditionally seen itself as a guardian of state
secularism.
(Reuters, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 22, In Geneva WTO
Director-General Roberto Azevedo said that the required two-thirds
of member states have ratified the first multilateral trade
agreement reached under the World Trade Organization since it was
created over a generation ago.
(AP, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 22, Yemen's President
Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi said that Saudi Arabia has earmarked $10
billion in aid for the reconstruction of provinces retaken from
Shiite Huthi rebels.
(AFP, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 22, In Yemen Major
General Ahmed Saif al-Yafei, second-in-command of Yemen’s army, was
killed outside the strategic the Red Sea coast city of al-Mokha when
a missile fired by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement hit an army
camp.
(Reuters, 2/22/17)